Biomedical subjects

Renaud Vincentelli

Publications and source records attributed to Renaud Vincentelli.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Automated expression and solubility screening of His-tagged proteins in 96-well format.

A growing need for sensitive and high-throughput methods for screening the expression and solubility of recombinant proteins exists in structural genomics. Originally, the emergency solution was to use immediately available techniques such as manual lysis of expression cells followed by analysis of protein expression by gel electrophoresis. However, these handmade methods quickly proved to be unfit for the high-throughput demand of postgenomics, and it is now generally accepted that the long-term solution to this problem will be based on automation, on industrial standard-formatted experiments, and on downsizing samples and consumables. In agreement with this consensus, we have set up a fully automated method based on a dot-blot technology and using 96-well format consumables for assessing by immunodetection the amount of total and soluble recombinant histidine (His)-tagged proteins expressed in Escherichia coli. The method starts with the harvest of expression cells and ends with the display of solubility/expression results in milligrams of recombinant protein per liter of culture using a three-color code to assist analysis. The program autonomously processes 160 independent cultures at a time.

Escherichia coli↗

PubMed2004

Structure of Escherichia coli YhdH, a putative quinone oxidoreductase.

As part of a structural genomics project on bacterial gene products of unknown function, the crystal structures of YhdH, a putative quinone oxidoreductase, and its complex with NADP have been determined at 2.25 and 2.6 A resolution, respectively. The overall fold of YhdH is very similar to that of alcohol dehydrogenases and quinone reductases despite its low sequence identity. The absence of any Zn ion indicates that YdhH is a putative quinone oxidoreductase. YhdH forms a homodimer, with each subunit composed of two domains: a catalytic domain and a coenzyme-binding domain. NADP is bound in a deep cleft formed between the two domains. Large conformational changes occur upon NADP binding, with the two domains closing up to each other and narrowing the NADP-binding cleft. Comparisons of the YdhH active site with those of the quinone oxidoreductases from Escherichia coli and Thermus thermophilus made it possible to identify essential conserved residues as being Asn41, Asp43, Asp64 and Arg318. The active-site size is very narrow and unless an induced fit occurs is accessible only to reagents the size of benzoquinone.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2004

The Escherichia coli YadB gene product reveals a novel aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase like activity.

In the course of a structural genomics program aiming at solving the structures of Escherichia coli open reading frame products of unknown function, we have determined the structure of YadB at 1.5A using molecular replacement. The YadB protein is 298 amino acid residues long and displays 34% sequence identity with E.coli glutamyl-tRNA synthetase (GluRS). It is much shorter than GluRS, which contains 468 residues, and lacks the complete domain interacting with the tRNA anticodon loop. As E.coli GluRS, YadB possesses a Zn2+ located in the putative tRNA acceptor stem-binding domain. The YadB cluster uses cysteine residues as the first three zinc ligands, but has a weaker tyrosine ligand at the fourth position. It shares with canonical amino acid RNA synthetases a major functional feature, namely activation of the amino acid (here glutamate). It differs, however, from GluRSs by the fact that the activation step is tRNA-independent and that it does not catalyze attachment of the activated glutamate to E.coli tRNAGlu, but to another, as yet unknown tRNA. These results suggest thus a novel function, distinct from that of GluRSs, for the yadB gene family.

Adenosine Monophosphate↗

PubMed2004

High-throughput automated refolding screening of inclusion bodies.

One of the main stumbling blocks encountered when attempting to express foreign proteins in Escherichia coli is the occurrence of amorphous aggregates of misfolded proteins, called inclusion bodies (IB). Developing efficient protein native structure recovery procedures based on IB refolding is therefore an important challenge. Unfortunately, there is no "universal" refolding buffer: Experience shows that refolding buffer composition varies from one protein to another. In addition, the methods developed so far for finding a suitable refolding buffer suffer from a number of weaknesses. These include the small number of refolding formulations, which often leads to negative results, solubility assays incompatible with high-throughput, and experiment formatting not suitable for automation. To overcome these problems, it was proposed in the present study to address some of these limitations. This resulted in the first completely automated IB refolding screening procedure to be developed using a 96-well format. The 96 refolding buffers were obtained using a fractional factorial approach. The screening procedure is potentially applicable to any nonmembrane protein, and was validated with 24 proteins in the framework of two Structural Genomics projects. The tests used for this purpose included the use of quality control methods such as circular dichroism, dynamic light scattering, and crystallogenesis. Out of the 24 proteins, 17 remained soluble in at least one of the 96 refolding buffers, 15 passed large-scale purification tests, and five gave crystals.

Buffers↗

PubMed2003

Medium-scale structural genomics: strategies for protein expression and crystallization.

While high-throughput methods of protein production and crystallization are beginning to be well documented, owing to the output of large structural genomics programs, medium-throughput methods at the laboratory scale lag behind. In this paper, we report a possible way for an academic laboratory to adapt high-throughput to medium-throughput methods, on the basis of the first results of two projects aimed at solving the 3D structures of Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Tb) proteins of unknown function. We have developed sequential and iterative procedures as well as new technical processes for these programs. Our results clearly demonstrate the value of this medium-throughput approach. For instance, in the first 14 months of the E. coli program, 69 out of 108 target genes led to soluble proteins, 36 were brought to crystallization, and 28 yielded crystals; among the latter, 13 led to usable data sets and 9 to structures. These results, still incomplete, might help in planning future directions of expression and crystallization of proteins applied to medium-throughput structural genomics programs.

Crystallization↗

PubMed2002

A medium-throughput crystallization approach.

The first results of a medium-scale structural genomics program clearly demonstrate the value of using a medium-throughput crystallization approach based on a two-step procedure: a large screening step employing robotics, followed by manual or automated optimization of the crystallization conditions. The structural genomics program was based on cloning in the Gateway vectors pDEST17, introducing a long 21-residue tail at the N-terminus. So far, this tail has not appeared to hamper crystallization. In ten months, 25 proteins were subjected to crystallization; 13 yielded crystals, of which ten led to usable data sets and five to structures. Furthermore, the results using a robot dispensing 50-200 nl drops indicate that smaller protein samples can be used for crystallization. These still partial results might indicate present and future directions for those who have to make crucial choices concerning their crystallization platform in structural genomics programs.

Crystallization↗