bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.17.448472; this version posted June 17, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC 4.0 International license. Modelling hCDKL5 heterologous expression in bacteria Marco Fondi1,2*, Stefano Gonzi1, Mikolaj Dziurzynski3, Paola Turano4, Veronica Ghini4, Marzia Calvanese5, Andrea Colarusso5, Concetta Lauro5, Ermenegilda Parrilli5, Maria Luisa Tutino5 1 Department of Biology, University of Florence, Italy; 2 Centro Studi Dinamiche Complesse (CSDC), University of Florence, Italy; 3 Department of Environmental MicroBiology and Biotechnology, Institute of MicroBiology, Faculty of Biology, Faculty of Biology, Poland 4 Center of Magnetic Resonance (CERM), University of Florence, Italy 5 Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Complesso Universitario Monte Sant'Angelo, Napoli, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: hCDKL5 refers to the human cyclin-dependent kinase that is primarily expressed in the brain where it exerts its function in several neuron districts. Mutations in its coding sequence are often causative of hCDKL5 deficiency disorder. The large-scale recombinant production of hCDKL5 is desirable to boost the translation of current therapeutic approaches into the clinic. However, this is hampered by the following features: i) almost two-thirds of hCDKL5 sequence are predicted to be intrinsically disordered, making this region more susceptible to proteolytic attack; ii) the cytoplasmic accumulation of the enzyme in eukaryotic host cells is associated to toxicity. The bacterium Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis TAC125 (PhTAC125) is the only prokaryotic host in which the full-length production of hCDKL5 has been demonstrated.