Open AccessHigh‐throughput protein production and purification at the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease
Author(s) -
Bryan Cassie M.,
Bhandari Janhavi,
Napuli Alberto J.,
Leibly David J.,
Choi Ryan,
Kelley Angela,
Van Voorhis Wesley C.,
Edwards Thomas E.,
Stewart Lance J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section f
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1744-3091
DOI - 10.1107/s1744309111018367
Subject(s) - histidine , structural genomics , cleavage (geology) , protein purification , cleave , recombinant dna , chromatography , affinity chromatography , protease , biochemistry , chemistry , biology , computational biology , protein structure , amino acid , gene , enzyme , paleontology , fracture (geology)
The establishment of an efficient and reliable protein‐purification pipeline is essential for the success of structural genomic projects. The SSGCID Protein Purification Group at the University of Washington (UW‐PPG) has established a robust protein‐purification pipeline designed to purify 400 proteins per year at a rate of eight purifications per week. The pipeline was implemented using two ÄKTAexplorer 100s and four ÄKTAprimes to perform immobilized metal‐affinity chromatography (IMAC) and size‐exclusion chromatography. Purifications were completed in a period of 5 d and yielded an average of 53 mg highly purified protein. This paper provides a detailed description of the methods used to purify, characterize and store SSGCID proteins. Some of the purified proteins were treated with 3C protease, which was expressed and purified by UW‐PPG using a similar protocol, to cleave non‐native six‐histidine tags. The cleavage was successful in 94% of 214 attempts. Cleaved proteins yielded 2.9% more structures than uncleaved six‐histidine‐tagged proteins. This 2.9% improvement may seem small, but over the course of the project the structure output from UW‐PPG is thus predicted to increase from 260 structures to 318 structures. Therefore, the outlined protocol with 3C cleavage and subtractive IMAC has been shown to be a highly efficient method for the standardized purification of recombinant proteins for structure determination via X‐ray crystallography.