Expression and purification of integral membrane metallopeptidase HtpX

Spf1 and Ste24: quality controllers of transmembrane protein topology in the eukaryotic cell

DNA replication, transcription, and translation in eukaryotic cells occur with decreasing but still high fidelity. In contrast, for the estimated 33% of the human proteome that is inserted as transmembrane (TM) proteins, insertion with a non-functional inverted topology is frequent. Correct topology is essential for function and trafficking to appropriate cellular compartments and is controlled principally by responses to charged residues within 15 residues of the inserted TM domain (TMD); the flank with the higher positive charge remains in the cytosol (inside), following the positive inside rule (PIR). Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) mutants that increase insertion contrary to the PIR were selected. Mutants with strong phenotypes were found only in SPF1 and STE24 (human cell orthologs are ATP13A1 and ZMPSte24) with, at the time, no known relevant functions. Spf1/Atp13A1 is now known to dislocate to the cytosol TM proteins inserted contrary to the PIR, allowing energy-conserving reinsertion. We hypothesize that Spf1 and Ste24 both recognize the short, positively charged ER luminal peptides of TM proteins inserted contrary to the PIR, accepting these peptides into their large membrane-spanning, water-filled cavities through interaction with their many interior surface negative charges. While entry was demonstrated for Spf1, no published evidence directly demonstrates substrate entry to the Ste24 cavity, internal access to its zinc metalloprotease (ZMP) site, or active withdrawal of fragments, which may be essential for function. Spf1 and Ste24 comprise a PIR quality control system that is conserved in all eukaryotes and presumably evolved in prokaryotic progenitors as they gained differentiated membrane functions. About 75% of the PIR is imposed by this quality control system, which joins the UPR, ERAD, and autophagy (ER-phagy) in coordinated, overlapping quality control of ER protein function.

Pseudomonas aeruginosaesterase PA2949, a bacterial homolog of the human membrane esterase ABHD6: expression, purification and crystallization

Homologous expression of the membrane-bound esterase PA2949 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01 and the purification of detergent-solubilized enzyme resulted in stable PA2949 protein that crystallized. The crystals obtained were used for X-ray analysis and diffracted to a resolution of 2.74 Å.

The human membrane-bound α/β-hydrolase domain 6 (ABHD6) protein modulates endocannabinoid signaling, which controls appetite, pain and learning, as well as being linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, through the degradation of the key lipid messenger 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG). This makes ABHD6 an attractive therapeutic target that lacks structural information. In order to better understand the molecular mechanism of 2-AG-hydrolyzing enzymes, the PA2949 protein from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which has 49% sequence similarity to the ABHD6 protein, was cloned, overexpressed, purified and crystallized. Overexpression of PA2949 in the homologous host yielded the membrane-bound enzyme, which was purified in milligram amounts. Besides their sequence similarity, the enzymes both show specificity for the hydrolysis of 2-AG and esters of medium-length fatty acids. PA2949 in the presence of n-octyl β-d-glucoside showed a higher activity and stability at room temperature than those previously reported for PA2949 overexpressed and purified from Escherichia coli. A suitable expression host and stabilizing detergent were crucial for obtaining crystals, which belonged to the tetragonal space group I4₁22 and diffracted to a resolution of 2.54 Å. This study provides hints on the functional similarity of ABHD6-like proteins in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and might guide the structural study of these difficult-to-crystallize proteins.

An in vivo protease activity assay for investigating the functions of the Escherichia coli membrane protease HtpX

Escherichia coli HtpX is an M48 family zinc metalloproteinase located in the cytoplasmic membrane. Previous studies suggested that it is involved in the quality control of membrane proteins. However, its in vivo proteolytic function has not been characterized in detail, mainly because the physiological substrates have not been identified and no model substrate that allows sensitive detection of the protease activity is available. We constructed a new model substrate of HtpX and established an in vivo semiquantitative and convenient protease activity assay system for HtpX. This system enables detection of differential protease activities of HtpX mutants carrying mutations in conserved regions. This system would also be useful for investigating the functions of HtpX and its homologs in other bacteria.

MISTIC-fusion proteins as antigens for high quality membrane protein antibodies

Lack of high-quality antibodies against transmembrane proteins is a widely recognized hindrance in biomedical and cell biological research. Here we present a robust pipeline for the generation of polyclonal antibodies employing full-length membrane proteins as immunogens to overcome this "antibody bottleneck". We express transmembrane proteins fused to a MISTIC fragment that enhances expression of eukaryotic membrane proteins in E. coli. Purified membrane proteins are used as immunogen for rabbit injection employing standard immunizing protocols. The raised antibodies against membrane proteins of the endoplasmic reticulum and the nuclear envelope, which we use as test cases, function in a wide range of applications and are superior to ones produced against soluble domains as immunogens.