A New Platform for Membrane Proteins Expression
Membrane proteins (MPs) play a vital role in the life activities of humans and other species. Membrane proteins make up 30% of the genomes that have been sequenced. The functions of drug targeting sites, signal transmission between cells, and external environment detection are mainly achieved by special membrane receptor proteins on biological membranes. Therefore, the study of membrane proteins is of great significance in industry, environment, and medicine. The analysis of membrane proteins has gradually become one of the hot spots in biology.
The level of membrane proteins on biological membranes is generally low. Few membrane protein species have a single component on the membrane, so it is difficult to obtain sufficient amounts of membrane proteins directly in the natural biological environment. Membrane proteins have strong hydrophobic properties, and it is not easy to place purified proteins in a hydrophobic environment. There is still no effective method for functional and efficient preparation of membrane proteins, resulting in that the structure and function of most membrane proteins have not been thoroughly analyzed. Therefore, obtaining functional membrane proteins has always been the focus of researchers' efforts to achieve breakthroughs. To solve this problem, researchers have used various in vitro artificial hydrophobic environments, such as surfactant micelles, liposomes, and nano lipoprotein particles, to improve protein expression conditions, select more suitable host cells, and optimize the modification and positioning of membrane proteins.
Recently, researchers have developed a new platform for membrane protein expression; this platform is based on lipid bilayer and uses a cell-free protein expression system. Fusing these two technologies enables the direct synthesis of functional membrane proteins for biotechnological applications. The platform utilizes the advantages of a cell-free system and can express protein quickly and efficiently in a small reaction system in vitro. Due to the nature of this system, there is a significant improvement in expressing proteins that are difficult to express multiple times across membranes or common cell lines due to their strong hydrophobicity, such as membrane proteins. And the use of lipid bilayer allows membrane proteins to retain their own structural and functional properties. The development of this platform supports the study of membrane proteins and shows excellent potential in drug delivery and biomaterials.
The Advantages of this platform include:
- Preserve the function and native orientation of membrane proteins
- Compatible with molecular biology tools
- Preserve the constituents of membrane proteins
- Rapid production of membrane proteins
Potential Applications
- Research on membrane proteins
- Optimized bioanalytical assays
- Improvements in Biomaterials
- Characterization of protein structure
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Reference
- Virgili-López, Goretti. (2008). Targeting to compartments of the endomembrane system for the accumulation of HIV-1 p24 in tobacco plants.