Spontaneous interaction of purified apolipoproteins and phospholipids results in formation of lipoprotein particles with nanometer-sized dimensions; we refer to these assemblies as nanolipoprotein particles or NLPs. These bilayer constructs can serve as suitable mimetics of biological membranes and are fully soluble in aqueous environments. We made NLPs from dimyristoylphospatidylcholine (DMPC) in combination with each of four different apolipoproteins: apoA-I, Delta-apoA-I fragment, apoE4 fragment, and apolipophorin III (apoLp-III) from the silk moth B. mori. Predominately discoidal in shape, these particles have diameters between 10 and 20 nm, share uniform heights between 4.5 and 5 nm, and can be produced in yields ranging between 40 and 60%. The particular lipoprotein, the lipid to lipoprotein ratio, and the assembly parameters determine the size and homogeneity of nanolipoprotein particles and indicate that apoA-I NLP preparations are smaller than the larger apoE422K and apoLp-III NLP preparations.

Here we demonstrate rapid production of solubilized and functional membrane protein by simultaneous cell-free expression of an apolipoprotein and a membrane protein in the presence of lipids, leading to the self-assembly of membrane protein-containing nanolipoprotein particles (NLPs). NLPs have shown great promise as a biotechnology platform for solubilizing and characterizing membrane proteins. However, current approaches are limited because they require extensive efforts to express, purify, and solubilize the membrane protein prior to insertion into NLPs. By the simple addition of a few constituents to cell-free extracts, we can produce membrane proteins in NLPs with considerably less effort. For this approach an integral membrane protein and an apolipoprotein scaffold are encoded by two DNA plasmids introduced into cellfree extracts along with lipids. For this study reported here we used plasmids encoding the bacteriorhodopsin (bR) membrane apoprotein and scaffold protein ⌬1-49 apolipoprotein A-I fragment (⌬49A1). Cell free co-expression of the proteins encoded by these plasmids, in the presence of the cofactor all-trans-retinal and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine, resulted in production of functional bR as demonstrated by a 5-nm shift in the absorption spectra upon light adaptation and characteristic time-resolved FT infrared difference spectra for the bR 3 M transition. Importantly the functional bR was solubilized in discoidal bR⅐NLPs as determined by atomic force microscopy. A survey study of other membrane proteins co-expressed with ⌬49A1 scaffold protein also showed significantly increased solubility of all of the membrane proteins, indicating that this approach may provide a general method for expressing membrane proteins enabling further studies.

Membrane-associated proteins and protein complexes account for approximately a third or more of the proteins in the cell (1, 2). These complexes mediate essential cellular processes; including signal transduc-tion, transport, recognition, bioenergetics and cell-cell communication. In general, membrane proteins are challenging to study because of their insolubility and tendency to aggregate when removed from their protein lipid bilayer environment. This chapter is focused on describing a novel method for producing and solubilizing membrane proteins that can be easily adapted to high-throughput expression screening. This process is based on cell-free transcription and translation technology coupled with nanolipoprotein par ticles (NLPs), which are lipid bilayers confined within a ring of amphipathic protein of defined diameter. The NLPs act as a platform for inserting, solubilizing and characterizing functional membrane proteins. NLP component proteins (apolipoproteins), as well as membrane proteins can be produced by either traditional cell-based or as discussed here, cell-free expression methodologies.

Executive SummaryThe goal of this work was to optimize and evaluate LLNL's in-bed amplification technology to improve the level of detection for suspensions containing trace amounts of anthracis DNA. The binding/cleaning performance of the packed bed is compared to the conventional commercial approach; Qiagen column cleanup and elution, followed by detection through an ex-situ amplification process.Five liquid suspensions were spiked with B.anthracis DNA in concentration series. These suspensions were: 1) water, 2) water with EDTA, 3) dirty water from carpet extraction, 4) dirty carpet extraction with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) plus 0.1% Tween 20 plus 0.1% gelatin, and 5) a subway aerosol collected in water. Each suspension matrix was spiked with DNA and injected (in replicate) into either Qiagen Microcolumns (using the kit processing instructions) or LLNL's packed bed (using the LLNL in-bed purification and amplification protocol). The process output was assayed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR). Table ES-1 shows the level of DNA (pg per 100 uL of input suspension) that resulted in successful amplification for all reactions (X=Y), and the level for which at least one of the reactions was successful (X>0). For each suspension and DNA concentration, there were Y QPCR assays of which X showed successful amplification.LLNL's packed bed technology outperformed Qiagen Microcolumns for all five suspensions, typically by one order of magnitude in both the limit of assured detection (all reactions positive), and the lower limit of detection (some reactions positive). Limit of assured detection (all PCR rxns successful)Lower limit of detection (X successful / Y rxns)

The BioBriefcase is an integrated briefcase-sized aerosol collection and analysis system for autonomous monitoring of the environment, which is currently being jointly developed by Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories. This poster presents results from the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) module of the system. The DNA must be purified after exiting the aerosol collector to prevent inhibition of the enzymatic reaction. Traditional solid-phase extraction results in a large loss of sample. In this flow-through system, we perform sample purification, concentration and amplification in one reactor, which minimizes the loss of material. The sample from the aerosol collector is mixed with a denaturation solution prior to flowing through a capillary packed with silica beads. The DNA adheres to the silica beads allowing the environmental contaminants to be flushed to waste while effectively concentrating the DNA on the silica matrix. The adhered DNA is amplified while on the surface of the silica beads, resulting in a lower limit of detection than an equivalent eluted sample. Thus, this system is beneficial since more DNA is available for amplification, less reagents are utilized, and contamination risks are reduced.