Abstract
Heterologous protein production is used to amplify the yield of a desired protein target. To date, however, this is not a streamlined process: the factors defining an optimal protein production experiment are still poorly understood. This empirical exercise is particularly challenging for proteins of eukaryotic origin as well as those located in cellular membranes. The strong interest in structural and functional characterisation of eukaryotic membrane proteins—of which many are targets for different drugs—means that large amounts of pure protein, and hence high production levels in a suitable host, are required. On the genetic level, there are mainly two ways to positively influence the final yield of a desired protein target. First, the sequence surrounding the starting ATG can be altered and second the genetic code itself can be optimised to suit the selected host for production. The practical aspects of these two strategies will be discussed and exemplified in further detail in this chapter together with some hints and troubleshooting around different stages of the procedure.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Kozak M (1984) Point mutations close to the AUG initiator codon affect the efficiency of translation of rat preproinsulin in vivo. Nature 308:241–246
Kozak M (1987) An analysis of 5′-noncoding sequences from 699 vertebrate messenger RNAs. Nucleic Acids Res 15:8125–8148
Xia X (2007) The +4 G site in Kozak consensus is not related to the efficiency of translation initiation. PLoS One 2:e188
Cigan AM, Donahue TF (1987) Sequence and structural features associated with translational initiator regions in yeast – a review. Gene 59:1–18
Invitrogen (2009) EasySelect Pichia Expression Kit, version I. http://www.invitrogen.com/content/sfs/manuals/easyselect_man.pdf
Oberg F, Ekvall M, Nyblom M, Backmark A, Neutze R, Hedfalk K (2009) Insight into factors directing high production of eukaryotic membrane proteins; production of 13 human AQPs in Pichia pastoris. Mol Membr Biol 26:215–227
Tornroth-Horsefield S, Wang Y, Hedfalk K, Johanson U, Karlsson M, Tajkhorshid E, Neutze R, Kjellbom P (2006) Structural mechanism of plant aquaporin gating. Nature 439:688–694
Grote A, Hiller K, Scheer M, Munch R, Nortemann B, Hempel DC, Jahn D (2005) JCat: a novel tool to adapt codon usage of a target gene to its potential expression host. Nucleic Acids Res 33:W526–W531
Hoover DM, Lubkowski J (2002) DNAWorks: an automated method for designing oligonucleotides for PCR-based gene synthesis. Nucleic Acids Res 30:e43
Hedfalk K, Pettersson N, Oberg F, Hohmann S, Gordon E (2008) Production, characterization and crystallization of the Plasmodium falciparum aquaporin. Protein Expr Purif 59:69–78
Sharp PM, Li WH (1987) The codon Adaptation Index – a measure of directional synonymous codon usage bias, and its potential applications. Nucleic Acids Res 15:1281–1295
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the European Commission (SPINE, MalariaPorin project, E-MeP), the Chalmers Bioscience Initiative and the Wallenberg Foundation (Membrane Protein Center, Lundberg Laboratory, Göteborg), the Swedish Research Council (VR) as well as the Research School of Genomics and Bioinformatics.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Hedfalk, K. (2012). Codon Optimisation for Heterologous Gene Expression in Yeast. In: Bill, R. (eds) Recombinant Protein Production in Yeast. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 866. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-770-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-770-5_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-769-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-770-5
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols