Revision as of 12:05, 27 August 2019

Introduction

Figure Y. Mechanism of action. The CBDcipA-sfGFP is attached to cellulose. By adding thrombin from any source the fusion protein will be cleaved and sfGFP will be released into the solution. By changing the fusion protein to an antimicrobial peptide/enzyme, and using the cellulose as a bandage, the peptide/enzyme can be released into a wound by native human thrombin.

This part consists of a cellulose binding domain (CBD) from Clostridium thermocellum (C. thermocellum) cellulose scaffolding protein (CipA) and is a central part Clostridium thermocellum's cellusome. The CBD was fused to sfGFP in this part to easily track the binding capacities and to test our release mechanism. The CBD-sfGFP were fused using a flexible GS-linker (-GGGGSGGGGS-). A thrombin cleavage site (-LVPRGS-) was added to the end of the linker and its breakage will leave a glycine and serine attached to the N-terminal of the sfGFP fusion protein.

Assembly compabilities

An internal BamHI recognition sequence (RS) has been added to enable changeable fusion proteins. BamHI was chosen because its RS codes for glycine and serine, fitting it to the end of the thrombin site. It is also cost-effective enzyme and is unaffected by methylated DNA.

This part can be used to track purification, measure CBD binding ability and report cleavage at the thrombin site.

CBDcipA crystal structure

Figure 1. Crystal structure of CBDcipA with a resolution of 1.75 Å which were solved by [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/PMC452321 Tormo et al. 1989]. PDB code 1NBC. In red from the left, W118, R112, D56, H57 and Y67, thought to be the surface which interacts strongly with cellulose.

Important molecular faces

CBDcipA is composed of a nine-stranded beta sandwich with a jelly roll topology and binds a calcium ion. It further contains conserved residues exposed on the surface which map into two clear surfaces on each side of the molecule. One of faces mainly contains planar strips of aromatic and polar residues which may be the cellulose binding part. Further aspect are unknown and unique with this CBD such as the other conserved residues which are contained in a groove.

The choice of cellulose binding domain

iGEM Linköping 2019 choose CBDcipA due to many other iGEM teams exploring the possibilities of this domain. Our basic design was influenced by iGEM14 Imperial, iGEM15 Edinburgh and iGEM18 Ecuador. Purification and where to place the fusion protein (N- or C-terminal) was determined by studying the former projects. CBDcipA also originates from a thermophilic bacteria which further increases the domains applications.

Expression system

The part has a very strong expression with a T7-RNA-polymerase promotor (BBa_I719005) as well as a 5'-UTR (BBa_K1758100) region which has been shown to further increase expression in E. coli (BBa_K1758106), ([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2676996 Olins et al. 1989]), ([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23927491 Takahashi et al. 2013]). Both this part and the part were sfGFP was changed for AsPink (BBa_K3182000) showed great expression.

Figure B. Benchling screenshot of the expression system. The T7-RNA-polymerase promotor is followed by a T7 g10 leader sequence which enhances the binding to the 16S ribosomal RNA. After the leader sequence a poly A spacer is found, which has been shown to increase translation in vitro. Before the start codon a strong RBS, g10-L, followed by an AT-rich spacer can be seen, which will slightly increase translation of the following gene.

Usage and Biology

Figure Z Picture 1: Binding studies of the CBDcipA-sfGFP bound to bacterial cellulose. Washed three times with either 70 % ethanol, PBS or deionized water. Picture 2: Induced culture after 16 hours. E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells were grown in prescence of 25 ug/mL chlorampenicol until an OD600 of 0.8 at 37 degrees Celsius, and later induced with 0.5 mM IPTG. The induced culture were then incubated in 16 degrees Celsius for 16 hours. Picture 3: Left: CBDcipA-sfGFP bound to bacterial cellulose in form of a thin film, right: bacterial cellulose reference. Binding of CBDcipA-sfGFP was done the same way as the pictures below.

Figure A Picture 1: Lysate containing CBDcipA-sfGFP with bacterial cellulose before incubation. Picture 2: Lysate (CBDcipA-sfGFP) bound to bacterial cellulose after incubation in room temperature for 30 minutes on an end-to-end rotator. Picture 3: Bacterial cellulose after incubation with 70 % ethanol in room temperature for 30 minutes on an end-to-end rotator. All pictures were taken on a 302 nm UV-table for better visualization of the result.

Tracking of purification

Figure Y.Purification with 2g of cellulose (Whatman CF11 medium length cellulose fibres) in a column. The first striped graph is the flowthrough after adding BL21 (DE3) Gold lysate. The black graphs are the RFU (relative fluorescence units) of the ethanol (70%) washes. The blue graphs are the water elutions in which 1mL distilled water was added until the column stopped dropping. The red and grey ethanol and distilled (dH2O) graphs illustrate the possible interfering RFU values of each fluid. The last green graph displays the RFU value of the un-filtered lysate used in this purification.

Purification with CBDcipA

Reporter of successful cleavage and release from the cellulose binding domain

Figure Y. A kinetic experiment of thrombins protease activity. Bacterial cellulose, with CBDcipA-sfGFP attached, were analyzed spectrophotometrically.

Spectrophotometrically analysis of thrombin cleavage

In figure X the release of sfGFP from our bacterial cellulose bandage can be seen over time. The cellulose-CBD-sfGFP were attached to the side of wells of a 96-well plate and 200 uL 1X thrombin cleavage buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, 150 mM NaCl and 2.5 mM CaCl2) were added. To the wells with cellulose-CBDcipA-sfGFP and buffer, 0.03 units of human thrombin were added and fluorescence (ex. 485 nm, em. 510 nm) were measured from the bottom and up (center of the well) for 16 hours. The temperature was set to 37 degrees Celsius. In blue, successful release of sfGFP from the CBD can be seen. In red, the control experiment can be seen, where no thrombin was added.

Figure X. Visual control of human thrombin protease activity. Bacterial cellulose was incubated with CBDcipA-sfGFP for 30 minutes on an end-to-end rotator in room temperature.

Visual experiment of thrombin cleavage

To the left a visual experiment with this part can be seen. After unbound protein had been removed the cellulose was washed three times with 70 % ethanol. To test the activity, 200 uL thrombin cleavage buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, 150 mM NaCl and 2.5 mM CaCl2) were added along side 0.03 units of human thrombin to the bacterial cellulose. To the right in the figure, the successful cleavage of CBDcipA-sfGFP can be seen. The cellulose is to the left of the tube where free (cleaved at the thrombin site) sfGFP can be seen. To the left, the control sample can be seen, where no sfGFP can be seen in the supernatant. The picture is taken on a 302 nm UV-table to better visualize the results.

Figure X. SDS-PAGE analysis of CBDcipA-sfGFP and thrombin cleavage product. The gel to the left is a 4–20% Mini-PROTEAN® TGX™ by BioRad and the ladder is a PageRuler™ Prestained Protein Ladder. The gel was run at 200 V for 30 minutes. Lane 1 contains the ladder, lane 2 bacterial lysate with CBDcipA-sfGFP, lane 3-6 contains four washes with 70 % ethanol, lane 7-10 contains four elution fractions with deionized water. Lane 11 contains sfGFP (from cleaving with thrombin).

SDS-PAGE analysis of cleavage and expression

E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells were grown in prescence of 25 ug/mL chlorampenicol until an OD600 of 0.8 at 37 degrees Celsius, and later induced with 0.5 mM IPTG. The induced culture were then incubated in 16 degrees Celsius for 16 hours. The bacteria was then lysed with sonication at 30 % for 6 minutes. Most of this part could be found in the soluble fraction. The lysate (1 mL) was then incubated with cellulose (CF11) for 30 minutes in room temperature. Four washes with 70 % ethanol was then conducted all with a volume of 1 mL. Elution of CBDcipA-sfGFP was done with 1 mL fractions of dH2O. One replicate was instead cleaved with thrombin instead. Thrombin cleavage buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, 150 mM NaCl and 2.5 mM CaCl2) was added to the Eppendorf tube with the cellulose at a volume of 500 uL, and 0.03 units was then added to the solution. The cleavage was done in room temperature over 16 hours, with inversion of the tube.