Bacterial Expression and One-Step Purification of an Isotope-Labeled Heterotrimeric G-Protein alpha-Subunit

Published

May 1, 2005

Author(s)

N G. Abdulaev, Xi-Cheng Zhang, Andy Dinh, T Ngo, Phillip Bryan, D M. Brabazon, John Marino, Kevin Ridge

Abstract

Heterologous expression systems are often employed to generate sufficient quantities of isotope-labeled proteins for high-resolution NMR studies. Recently, the interaction between the prodomain region of subtilisin and an active, mutant form of the mature enzyme has been exploited to develop a cleavable affinity tag fusion system for one-step generation and purification of full-length soluble proteins obtained by inducible prokaryotic expression. As a first step towards applying high-resolution NMR methods to study heterotrimeric G-protein alpha-subunit (G alpha) conformation and dynamics, the utility of this subtilisin prodomain fusion system for expressing and purifying an isotope-labeled heterotrmeric G-protein-subuniG alpha )chimera ( 40 kDa polypeptide) has been tested. The results show that a prodomain fused G alpha chimera can be expressed to levels approaching 6-8 mg/L in minimal media and that the processed, mature protein exhibits properties similar to those of G alpha isolated from natural sources. To assay for the functional integrity of the purified G alpha chimera at NMR concentrations and probe for changes in the structure and dynamics of G alpha that result from activation, ¹⁵N-HSQC spectra of the GDP/Mg²+ bound form of G alpha obtained in the absence and presence of aluminum fluoride, a well known activator of the GDP bound state, have been acquired. Comparisons of the ¹⁵N-HSQC spectra reveals a number of changes in chemical shifts of the ¹HN, 15N crosspeaks that are discussed with respect to expected changes in the protein conformation associated with G alpha activation.

Citation

Journal of Biomolecular Nmr

Volume

32

Issue

No. 1

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Eukaryotic protein, G-protein, high-resolution, stable-isotope labeling, subtilisin, transducin

Citation

Abdulaev, N. , Zhang, X. , Dinh, A. , Ngo, T. , Bryan, P. , Brabazon, D. , Marino, J. and Ridge, K. (2005), Bacterial Expression and One-Step Purification of an Isotope-Labeled Heterotrimeric G-Protein alpha-Subunit, Journal of Biomolecular Nmr (Accessed November 7, 2025)