Attempts to express eukaryotic multi-spanning membrane proteins at high-levels have been generally unsuccessful. In order to investigate the cause of this limitation and gain insight into the rate limiting processes involved, we have analyzed the effect of translation levels on the expression of several human membrane proteins in Escherichia coli (E. coli). These results demonstrate that excessive translation initiation rates of membrane proteins cause a block in protein synthesis and ultimately prevent the high-level accumulation of these proteins. Moderate translation rates allow coupling of peptide synthesis and membrane targeting, resulting in a significant increase in protein expression and accumulation over time. The current study evaluates four membrane proteins, CD20 (4-transmembrane (TM) helixes), the G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs, 7-TMs) RA1c and EG-VEGFR1, and Patched 1 (12-TMs), and demonstrates the critical role of translation initiation rates in the targeting, insertion and folding of integral membrane proteins in the E. coli membrane.
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