Applications of the GST- Affinity Tag in the Purification and Characterization of Proteins Wibke Beatrice Kachel University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 8-2016 Applications of the GST- Affinity Tag in the Purification and Characterization of Proteins Wibke Beatrice Kachel University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Biochemistry Commons, and the Molecular Biology Commons Recommended Citation Kachel, Wibke Beatrice, "Applications of the GST- Affinity Tag in the Purification and Characterization of Proteins" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 1625. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1625 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Applications of the GST- Affinity Tag in the Purification and Characterization of Proteins A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry By Wibke Beatrice Kachel University of Regensburg Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, 2010 University of Arkansas Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, 2011 August 2016 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. ______________________________________________ Thallapuranam Krishnaswamy Suresh Kumar, Ph.D. Committee Chair ______________________________ Roger Koeppe II, Ph.D. Dan Davis, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member ______________________________ ______________________________ Bill Durham, Ph.D. David McNabb, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member Abstract With the latest innovations in biological sciences, large quantities of biologically active polypeptides as well as high throughput screening methods to quickly evaluate if these biomolecules potentially have therapeutic, diagnostic, or industrial purposes are required. The synthesis and purification of peptides and small proteins continue to be demanding as the production of high yields through chemical synthesis can involve large costs. On the other hand, there are only few examples of acquiring those biomolecules through cloning and expression in bacterial systems in form of recombinant fusion proteins. Glutathione S- Transferase (GST) is not only a very commonly used affinity tag to increase expression yields, but is also known to enhance the solubility of the protein of interest making it a valuable tool in the pursuit of purifying recombinant proteins. Moreover, multidimensional NMR spectroscopy is a widespread technique to reveal the 3D solution structure of proteins. Yet, obtaining structural information of peptides and small proteins can be difficult. In this context, we have developed a rapid purification of peptides and small proteins by fusing them to GST. The method developed is advantageous over the other reported methods due to its easy one-step purification yielding large amounts of fusion protein. Subsequently, the fusion protein is cleaved enzymatically under mild conditions, and the cleavage products are separated using an efficient heat treatment process. Our results show, the peptide and small protein conformations are not disturbed by the heat treatment. Therefore, our method can be a valuable alternative for the production of various clinically significant small proteins and peptides. Furthermore, we have optimized a method, which allows collecting structural information on protein/ peptide(s) of interest by employing the GST-tagged target protein during the acquisition of NMR data. Our results demonstrate that the affinity tag GST does not affect the quality of NMR data of its fused partner but that the loss of signals in the 1H-15N HSQC spectrum corresponding to the affinity tag is due to the decrease in the T2 relaxation rate upon dimerization as well as the flexibility within the fusion protein caused by the linker located between GST and the target protein. ©2016 by Beatrice Kachel All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements I would like to express my very great appreciation to my advisor, Dr. Kumar, for his patient guidance, and valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this research work that helped me grow as a researcher. I would also like to thank my committee for their assistance in keeping my progress on schedule and their advice during my committee meetings, and outside of lab. My special thanks are extended to the Kumar lab group. I would like to thank Srinivas Jayanthi for all the help, useful critics, enthusiastic encouragement, and friendship. Special thanks should also be given to Jacqueline Morris, Rory Henderson, and my other lab mates for all the help along the way. Assistance in the Pichia work provided by Dr. Pinto was greatly appreciated. I would like to acknowledge and thank my parents, especially my mom, for their support and love that gave me the strength to get through grad school. I want to thank my friends that I have met during grad school. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Erik Guzman, who became family to me, for looking out for me, being the very finest roommate, and inspiring me to be the best I can be. Many special thanks are extended to Kati Street for her friendship, spiritual support, and positive attitude that encouraged me throughout grad school. I cherish all the early mornings we got up to practice yoga. I would like to offer my special thanks to Matthias Knust for his friendship, brilliant analytical thinking that inspired lots of discussions, and help. Finally, I am particularly grateful for all the love, never-ending support and encouragement, and advice along the way given by George Sakhel. Table of Contents Page 1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................1 1.1. Protein purification......................................................................................................1 1.2. Affinity tags.................................................................................................................2 1.3. Glutathione S-transferase (GST)................................................................................18 1.4. GST as an affinity tag: SjGST26...............................................................................23 1.5. Versatility of the GST tag..........................................................................................27 1.6. Usage of GST-fused proteins.....................................................................................29 1.7. Removal of affinity tags.............................................................................................31 1.8. References..................................................................................................................37 2. Rapid and efficient purification of small proteins and peptides………....................................48 2.1. Abstract......................................................................................................................48 2.2. Introduction................................................................................................................49 2.3. Materials and Methods...............................................................................................50 2.4. Results………………................................................................................................56 2.5. Discussion..................................................................................................................66 2.6. References…………………………………………………………………………..68 3. Application(s) of the GST-fused proteins in NMR………………………................................72 3.1. Abstract......................................................................................................................72 3.2. Introduction................................................................................................................73 3.3. Materials and Methods...............................................................................................77 3.4. Results ………………...............................................................................................82 3.5. Discussion…………………………………………………………………………..93 3.6. Supplement…………………………………………………………………………97 3.7. References..................................................................................................................99 4. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................102 5. Appendix..................................................................................................................................104 5.1. Abstract....................................................................................................................104 5.2. Introduction..............................................................................................................105 5.3. Materials and Methods.............................................................................................112 5.4. Results and Discussion............................................................................................119 5.5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...134 5.6. References...............................................................................................................135 Abbreviations GST, Glutathione S-Transferase; His-tag, polyhistidine