Christian Ostermeier

Automated seamless DNA co-transformation cloning with direct expression vectors applying positive or negative insert selection

BackgroundMolecular DNA cloning is crucial to many experiments and with the trend to higher throughput of modern approaches automated techniques are urgently required. We have established an automated, fast and flexible low-cost expression cloning approach requiring only vector and insert amplification by PCR and co-transformation of the products.ResultsOur vectors apply positive selection for the insert or negative selection against empty vector molecules and drive strong expression of target proteins in E.coli cells. Variable tags are available both in N-terminal or C-terminal position. A newly developed β-lactamase (ΔW290) selection cassette contains a segment inside the β-lactamase open reading frame encoding a stretch of hydrophilic amino acids that result in a T7 promoter when back-translated. This position of the promoter permits positive selection and attenuated expression of fusion proteins with C-terminal tags. We have tested eight vectors by inserting six target sequences of variable length, provenience and function. The target proteins were cloned, expressed and detected using an automated Tecan Freedom Evo II liquid handling work station. Only two colonies had to be picked to score with 85% correct inserts while 80% of those were positive in expression tests.ConclusionsOur results establish co-transformation and positive/negative selection cloning in conjunction with the provided vectors and selection cassettes as an automatable alternative to commercialized high-throughput cloning systems like Gateway® or ligase-independent cloning (LIC) .

Efficient Elimination of Nonstoichiometric Enzyme Inhibitors from HTS Hit Lists

High-throughput screening often identifies not only specific, stoichiometrically binding inhibitors but also undesired compounds that unspecifically interfere with the targeted activity by nonstoichiometrically binding, unfolding, and/or inactivating proteins. In this study, the effect of such unwanted inhibitors on several different enzyme targets was assessed based on screening results for over a million compounds. In particular, the shift in potency on variation of enzyme concentration was used as a means to identify nonstoichiometric inhibitors among the screening hits. These potency shifts depended on both compound structure and target enzyme. The approach was confirmed by statistical analysis of thousands of dose-response curves, which showed that the potency of competitive and therefore clearly stoichiometric inhibitors was not affected by increasing enzyme concentration. Light-scattering measurements of thermal protein unfolding further verified that compounds that stabilize protein structure by stoichiometric binding show the same potency irrespective of enzyme concentration. In summary, measuring inhibitor IC50 values at different enzyme concentrations is a simple, cost-effective, and reliable method to identify and eliminate compounds that inhibit a specific target enzyme via nonstoichiometric mechanisms. (Journal of Biomolecular Screening 2009:679-689)

Enabling Low Cost Biopharmaceuticals: A Systematic Approach to Delete Proteases from a Well-Known Protein Production Host Trichoderma reesei

The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei has tremendous capability to secrete proteins. Therefore, it would be an excellent host for producing high levels of therapeutic proteins at low cost. Developing a filamentous fungus to produce sensitive therapeutic proteins requires that protease secretion is drastically reduced. We have identified 13 major secreted proteases that are related to degradation of therapeutic antibodies, interferon alpha 2b, and insulin like growth factor. The major proteases observed were aspartic, glutamic, subtilisin-like, and trypsin-like proteases. The seven most problematic proteases were sequentially removed from a strain to develop it for producing therapeutic proteins. After this the protease activity in the supernatant was dramatically reduced down to 4% of the original level based upon a casein substrate. When antibody was incubated in the six protease deletion strain supernatant, the heavy chain remained fully intact and no degradation products were observed. Interferon alpha 2b and insulin like growth factor were less stable in the same supernatant, but full length proteins remained when incubated overnight, in contrast to the original strain. As additional benefits, the multiple protease deletions have led to faster strain growth and higher levels of total protein in the culture supernatant.

Seamless Insert-Plasmid Assembly at High Efficiency and Low Cost.

Seamless cloning methods, such as co-transformation cloning, sequence- and ligation-independent cloning (SLIC) or the Gibson assembly, are essential tools for the precise construction of plasmids. The efficiency of co-transformation cloning is however low and the Gibson assembly reagents are expensive. With the aim to improve the robustness of seamless cloning experiments while keeping costs low, we examined the importance of complementary single-stranded DNA ends for co-transformation cloning and the influence of single-stranded gaps in circular plasmids on SLIC cloning efficiency. Most importantly, our data show that single-stranded gaps in double-stranded plasmids, which occur in typical SLIC protocols, can drastically decrease the efficiency at which the DNA transforms competent E. coli bacteria. Accordingly, filling-in of single-stranded gaps using DNA polymerase resulted in increased transformation efficiency. Ligation of the remaining nicks did not lead to a further increase in transformation efficiency. These findings demonstrate that highly efficient insert-plasmid assembly can be achieved by using only T5 exonuclease and Phusion DNA polymerase, without Taq DNA ligase from the original Gibson protocol, which significantly reduces the cost of the reactions. We successfully used this modified Gibson assembly protocol with two short insert-plasmid overlap regions, each counting only 15 nucleotides.

Cost-effective large-scale expression of proteins for NMR studies

We present protocols for high-level expression of isotope-labelled proteins in E. coli in cost-effective ways. This includes production of large amounts of unlabeled proteins and 13C-methyl methionine labeling in rich media, where yields of up to a gram of soluble protein per liter of culture are reached. Procedures for uniform isotope labeling of 2H, 13C and 15N using auto-induction or isopropyl-β-d-1-thiogalactopyranoside-induction are described, with primary focus on minimal isotope consumption and high reproducibility of protein expression. These protocols are based on high cell-density fermentation, but the key procedures are easily transferred to shake flask cultures.

Next generation biotherapeutic production system: The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei

espanolEn este trabajo se abordo el estudio quimico de la fraccion lipidica del hongo Hydnellum ferrugineum mediante tecnicas espectroscopicas y cromatograficas, en el cual fueron identificados: n-alkanos naturales (C10 – C30), esteroides con el esqueleto del ergosterol (ergosta-7-en-3-ona, ergosta-7,22-dien-3-ona, ergosta-7-en-3β-ol y ergosta-7,22-dien-3β-ol), dos triterpenos pentaciclicos (friedelina y taraxerol), acidos grasos saturados (C11, C12, C13, C14, C15, C16, C17, y C18), oleato de etilo y linoleato de etilo. Es de esperar que esta informacion quimicoespecifica aporte nuevos datos para la clasificacion quimico-taxonomica de este hongo EnglishIn this work we explored a chemical study of the lipid fraction of the fungus Hydnellum ferrugineum through spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques, in which the following were identified: natural n-alkanes (C10 – C30); steroids with an ergosterol skeleton (ergosta-7-en-3-one, ergosta-7,22-dien-3-one, ergosta-7-en-3β-ol and ergosta-7,22-dien-3β-ol); two pentacyclic triterpenes (friedeline and taraxerol); saturated fatty acids (C11, C12, C13, C14, C15, C16, C17, and C18); ethyl oleate; and ethyl linoleate. This chemical-specific information is expected to provide new data for the chemical-taxonomic classification of this fungus