SH
Scott Horowitz
  • Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Knoebel Institute for Healthy Again, University of Denver, Denver, USA
Monitoring Protein Stability In Vivo Using an Intein-Based Biosensor
基于Intein的生物传感器用于体内蛋白稳定性监测
作者:John S. Smetana, Tia M. Ariagno, Ahyun Son, Scott Horowitz and Christopher W. Lennon日期:04/20/2025,浏览量:267,Q&A: 0

Inteins are elements translated within host proteins and removed via a unique protein splicing reaction. In this process, the two peptide bonds flanking the intein are rearranged, releasing the intein and leaving a standard peptide bond in its place. Due to their ability to shuffle peptide bonds in a specific and controlled manner, inteins have proven valuable in protein engineering, leading to the development of numerous impactful technologies. In one application, intein-based biosensors link the activity of a host protein to intein excision. Recently, we developed a biosensor to measure protein stability in vivo, in which the removal of an intein-protein fusion is required for antibiotic resistance. In our protocol, cells expressing our biosensor are logarithmically diluted and spotted on agar plates containing increasing levels of antibiotics. Following incubation, quantitative survival curves can be generated. We also developed a dual protein stability sensor where both antibiotic resistance and fluorescence can be used as readouts and demonstrated that co-expression of the chaperonin GroEL can promote survival and fluorescence. Taken together, our novel intein-based biosensor adds to the available tools to measure protein stability within the cellular environment.