Part:BBa_K2324013
pRha_FimH_1His
The literature has shown that the terminal pili protein FimH (Le Trong et al 2010) can be modified by inserting heterologous sequences at position 225 and 258 (Pallesen et al 1995, Shembri et al 1999). However these two amino acids are in the pilin binding domain which may present difficulties when attempting to introduce large modifications. Harvard iGEM 2015 also introduced modifications at position 1 of the mature FimH protein. This part produces a FimH protein with a 6xHistidine tag inserted at the first amino acid position, that is the residue that remains at the N-terminus after the signal peptide has been cleaved during the membrane export process. This position is intended to improve the steric properties of the protein so as to ease the cell surface membrane export and to prevent interference with any native protein domains in the FimH which are involved in pilus biogenesis. The coding sequence is under the control of a rhamnose-inducible promoter (BBa_K902065), with the BBa_B0034 RBS and BBa_B0015 terminator. The part, when induced, produces a metal binding FimH protein that should involve itself in pilus biosynthesis when co-transformed with a plasmid containing the fim operon
As well as being utilised as a metal binding protein, this part also acts as a reporter. It gives clear and unambiguous evidence of protein expression. Once transformed into a number of E. coli strains BL21(DE3), Top10, FimB KO, FimH KO), the fusion protein can be expressed by inducing the culture at 0.6 OD with 2% rhamnose. The production of the 6xHistidine tag can be probed by the use of an SDS-PAGE and a Western blot.
After 24 h growth, cultures containing the P_Rha_FimH1His and wild-type strains were harvested. Cells were disrupted using BugBuster protein extraction reagent (Merck) and samples of the soluble and insoluble fractions were prepared for SDS-PAGE. Western Blots were probed with an anti-6xHis primary antibody raised in Mouse and anti-Mouse alkaline phosphatase-conjugated secondary antibody and visualised with SigmaFast BCIP/NBT.
Figure 1 Image of SDS-PAGE gel stained with Coomassie Blue. The wells of the polyacrylamide gel contained the following, 1: marker, 2: ΔFimH with FimH_1His insoluble fraction, 3: ΔFimB with FimH_1His insoluble fraction, 4: Top10 with FimH_1His insoluble fraction, 5: ΔFimH with FimH_1His soluble fraction, 6: ΔFimH with FimH_1His soluble fraction, 7: Top10 with FimH with FimH_1His soluble fraction, 8: BL21(DE3) with FimH_1His soluble fraction, 9: ΔFimB with FimH_1His soluble fraction and 10: marker.
Figure 2 Image of SDS-PAGE gel stained with Coomassie Blue. The wells is this gel are contained the following: 0: marker, 1: WT-BL21(DE3) insoluble fraction , 2: WT-Top10 insoluble fraction, 3: WT-ΔFimB insoluble fraction, 4: WT-ΔFimH insoluble fraction, 5: WT-BL21(DE3) soluble fraction, 6: WT-Top10 soluble fraction, 7: WT-ΔFimB soluble fraction, 8: WT-ΔFimH soluble fraction and 9: BL21(DE3) with FimH_1His insoluble fraction.
Figure 3 The columns of the Western blot correspond to the following samples: 0: marker 1: ΔFimB with FimH_1His insoluble fraction, 2: Top10 with FimH_1His insoluble fraction, 3: BL21(DE3) with FimH_1His insoluble fraction, 4: BL21(DE3) with FimH_1His insoluble fraction, 5: BL21(DE3) with FimH_1His soluble fraction, 6: ΔFimH with FimH_1His soluble fraction, 7: ΔFimB with FimH_1His soluble fraction, 8: Top10 with FimH with FimH_1His soluble fraction and 9: marker.
provided bands at the corresponding molecular weights for the FimH_1His protein which also had binding affinities for an anti-His antibody. The result of a band that corresponds to a molecular weight marginally lighter than the entire intact FimH_1His evidentiated expression of the protein, and suggested that the signal peptide had been cleaved upon the proteins delivery to the cell surface membrane. This makes a case for successful export of the protein and therefore successful pilus biogenesis.
Sequence and Features
- 10COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
- 12COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
- 21INCOMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]Illegal BglII site found at 469
- 23COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
- 25COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
- 1000INCOMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]Illegal BsaI.rc site found at 612
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