Lecture 7A Flashcards
How do we isolate a protein of interest?
Recombinant expression systems, or protein can be purified from tissues or whole organisms:
Give an example of what proteins can be purified from tissues or whole organisms:
hemoglobin from heart tissue, pectin from plants
the tissue must be physically broken up (homogenized)
What is recombinant expression systems?
“over-express” the protein of interest in bacterial, yeast or eukaryotic cells
What happens in recombinant expression systems?
- the gene encoding the protein is amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and inserted (cloned) into a “plasmid” or “vector”
- the plasmid/vector also contains a selectable marker gene, e.g., bla encodes -lactamase, which destroys - lactam antibiotics – only bacteria (usually E. coli) carrying the plasmid will grow in the presence of -lactamase
- the gene encoding the protein of interest is under the control of an “inducible” promoter to allow overexpression of that gene product
What are “plasmids”
small circular double-stranded DNA elements
What do both methods of isolating a protein of interest (recombinant expression systems & purification from tissue or whole organism) have in common?
Overexpressed protein must be isolated/purified form thousands of other proteins in cells
How is crude (impure) protein first isolated?
From the cell fraction in which it is present in the highest conc: cytoplasm, membranes, cell surface, secreted into the supernatant, organelles (for eukaryotic expression systems), periplasm (for bacterial expression systems).
For cytosolic proteins, the cells must be what first?
lysed (ruptured) by mechanical or chemical means to release cytosolic contents using ultrasonic vibration, homogenization, extrusion through a small orifice, osmotic shock, membrane-solubilisation using detergent
For proteins that are membrane-bound or associated with a particular organelle, must be first what?
Must “fractionate” the cells and purify the organelle or the membrane fraction of interest
Where are secreted proteins released?
Secreted proteins are released into the culture supernatant
What surface structures can be sheared off the cells?
Some surface structures like bacterial pili can be sheared off the cells
What is cell homogenate?
The products of cell lysis, inc membranes and organelles
What is differential centrifugation? What happens in it?
(note first lyse the cells then centrifuge)
- Using centrifuge at increasing force to separate cells into components
- the smaller the subcellular component the greater the centrifugal force (g-force, xg) required to sediment it
What does the supernatant contain after a high-speed centrifugation?
Enriched with hundreds of soluble proteins
How is the desired protein separated from the supernatant?
Is separated from the others based on properties of size, solubility, charge and/or specific binding affinity
At each step of the purification of soluble protein from the supernatant, the protein concentration and “specific activity” are assessed to ensure ____?
That the protein is being enriched (purified)
Define filtration
to remove large aggregates, un-lysed cells
Define salting out
Salting out of proteins (aggregation or precipitation) means crude protein purification using differential solubility
Define dialysis
to remove salts, small proteins
Define column chromatography
size exclusion, ion- exchange, affinity
Are most proteins are less or more soluble in high salt concentrations? Will precipitate out or in solution?
Less soluble in high salt conc & will precipitate out of sln
What compounds used to precipitate proteins?
Ammonium sulfate (AS) or trichloroacetic acid (TCA)
How can you use salt to purify crude protein?
A protein can be crudely purified from a complex mixture by gradually increasing the concentration of salt. Different proteins will become insoluble at different salt concentrations and can be removed from the solution by centrifugation
3 steps to salting out?
- salt is added at a concentration below the precipitation point of the protein of interest to precipitate out unwanted proteins for removal
- these insoluble proteins are “pelleted”
by centrifugation - the salt concentration of the supernatant is then increased slightly to precipitate out the desired protein - the precipitate is then resuspended (solubilized) in a physiological buffer.
Is salting out trial and error?
Yes, usually start with 10% ammonium sulfate, pellet out insoluble proteins and save them for analysis; increase the concentration to 20%, etc. Then use SDS-PAGE (see later) to identify which fraction(s) contain the protein of interest.
How can salts and small proteins be removed from the protein solution by dialysis?
- large molecules like proteins are retained in the dialysis bag whereas small molecules are free to diffuse out into the dialysis buffer -> equilibrium
- dialysis membranes can have different molecular weight cut-offs to allow release of different sized compounds, e.g., a 6-8 kDa membrane will allow anything smaller than ~8 kDa to pass through its pores
Why is the dialysis bag changed at least once?
- the dialysis buffer is changed at least once to dilute out the unwanted small molecules
What does column chromatography allow?
separation of proteins based on specific characteristics like size, net charge, binding affinity, etc
(size exclusion
hydrohobic interaction
ion-exchange
affinity)
Define stationary phase
of the column: gel matrix - a porous solid material (plastic, glass, carbohydrate polymer such as cellulose or agarose, gel, bead) with specific chemical properties (charge, functional groups) and/or a specific pore size
Define mobile phase
buffered solution carrying the crude protein preparation, which may already be enriched for the protein of interest
Proteins bind the column, or migrate through the column at different rates. This depends on the properties of the proteins and the properties of the stationary phase. Proteins become separated and can then be “eluted” from the column and collected in different “fractions”.
The shorter or taller the column would give better resolution (ability to resolve or separate different proteins)?
Taller
Another name for size exclusion chromatography
also called gel filtration chromatography
How does Size exclusion chromatography work?
- mixture of proteins in a small volume is applied to a column filled with porous beads
- proteins are separated based on size - large proteins elute off the column first, followed by smaller ones
- the large proteins cannot enter the pores in the polymer matrix/beads so they pass rapidly through the column
- the small proteins enter the beads and are retarded (slowed down) and emerge from the column last
When fractions are collected from the column in size exclusion chromatography, what is removed first?
the first fractions to come off the column will have the larger proteins
What is ion-exchange chromatography based on?
Separated based on sign and magnitude of net electric charge at given pH
In ion-exchange chromatography, what are charged functional groups (e.g., CM, DEAE) are covalently attached to
cellulose or agarose beads - the stationary phase
In Ion-exchange chromatography, proteins with a net (+) charge will bind to what?
to negatively charged (e.g., CM) beads - cation exchange
In Ion-exchange chromatography, proteins with a net (-) charge will bind to what?
positively- charged beads (e.g., DEAE) - anion exchange
In Ion-exchange chromatography, the charge of the protein will depend on what?
On the pH of the buffer - pH can be adjusted to increase the net charge
Is CM (carboxymethyl) group + or - charged
negatively charged beads
Is DEAD (diethylaminoethyl) group + or - charged
positively charged beads
Bound proteins are eluted with increasing what concentration
bound proteins are eluted with increasing SALT concentration (negative and positive ions, which compete with the functional groups for binding to the protein. )