Purification of a recombinant membrane protein tagged with a calmodulin-binding domain: properties of chimeras of the Escherichia coli nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase and the C-terminus of human plasma membrane Ca2+ -ATPase.

• A Ca2+ -dependent calmodulin-binding peptide (CBP) is an attractive tag for affinity purification of recombinant proteins, especially membrane proteins, since elution is simply accomplished by removing/chelating Ca2+. To develop a single-step calmodulin/CBP-dependent purification procedure for Escherichia coli nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase, a 49 amino acid large CBP or a larger 149 amino acid C-terminal fragment of human plasma membrane Ca2+ -ATPase (hPMCA) was fused C-terminally to the beta subunit of transhydrogenase. Fusion using the 49 amino acid fragment resulted in a dramatic loss of transhydrogenase expression while fusion with the 149 amino acid fragment gave a satisfactory expression. This chimeric protein was purified by affinity chromatography on calmodulin-Sepharose with mild elution with EDTA. The purity and activity were comparable to those obtained with His-tagged transhydrogenase and showed an increased stability. CBP-tagged transhydrogenase contained a 4- to 10-fold higher amount of the alpha subunit relative to the beta subunit as compared to wild-type transhydrogenase. To determine whether the latter was due to the CBP tag, a double-tagged transhydrogenase with both an N-terminal 6x His-tag and a CBP-tag, purified by using either tag, gave no significant increase in purity as compared to the single-tagged protein. The reasons for the altered subunit composition are discussed. The results suggest that, depending on the construct, the CBP-tag may be a suitable affinity purification tag for membrane proteins in general.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Biokemi och molekylärbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Amino Acid Sequence

Calcium-Transporting ATPases

chemistry

genetics

Calmodulin

chemistry

Calmodulin-Binding Proteins

chemistry

genetics

Cell Membrane

metabolism

ultrastructure

Chromatography

Affinity

methods

Cloning

Molecular

Escherichia coli

chemistry

enzymology

Genetic Vectors

genetics

Humans

Membrane Proteins

chemistry

genetics

isolation & purification

Molecular Sequence Data

NADP Transhydrogenase

chemistry

genetics

isolation & purification

Protein Structure

Tertiary

Protein Subunits

chemistry

genetics

isolation & purification

Recombinant Fusion Proteins

chemistry

genetics

isolation & purification

Chromatography

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)