Single Protein Production System in Escherichia coli

Synonyms

Single Protein Production system in bacteria

Definition

The Single Protein Production (SPP) system was initially developed in Inouye’s laboratory in 2005 and has been substantially improved since then. In the SPP system, live E. coli cells are converted into a bioreactor producing only a single protein of interest in a high yield. It works as follows: when MazF, an ACA-specific mRNA endoribonuclease or interferase, is induced in E. colicells, almost all cellular mRNAs are removed so that the cell growth is completely arrested. However, importantly, the MazF-induced cells retain full metabolic activity for RNA and protein synthesis. Therefore, when the mRNA for a protein of interest is engineered to be devoid of ACA sequences without altering the amino acid sequence of the protein (note that any mRNA can be engineered to be ACA-less without changing the original amino acid sequences) and the mRNA is induced in the MazF-induced cells, the cells start to produce only the...