Controlling proteolytic degradation of the methionine enriched MB-1Trp protein

Abstract

Financial support: This work was supported by grants from CORPAQ (Gouvernement du Québec) and NSERC (Canada) awarded to M.B.Keywords: agro-biotechnology, essential amino acids, protein design, protein engineering, proteolysis. Protein design is currently used for the creation of new proteins with desirable traits, which include a superior nutritional value. One of the challenges of protein design in this area is to achieve the production of stable native-like proteins that resist the proteolytic pressure of the organism used for its production (the bioreactor). Abbreviations *Corresponding authorWe report here the identification of a specific peptide bond sensitive to E. coli proteolysis in the designer protein MB-1Trp. In an attempt to reduce proteolysis, we have created a MB-1TrpHis gene library in which the two amino acids surrounding the peptide bond, N44 and L45, were randomized using degenerated