Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2020
Expression, Purification and Initial Characterization of Functional alpha(1)-Microglobulin (A1M) in Nicotiana benthamiana
Carlsson, Magnus L. R.; Kristiansson, Amanda; Bergwik, Jesper; Kanagarajan, Selvaraju; Bulow, Leif; Akerstrom, Bo; Zhu, Li-HuaAbstract
alpha(1)-Microglobulin (A1M) is a small glycoprotein that belongs to the lipocalin protein family. A major biological role of A1M is to protect cells and tissues against oxidative damage by clearing free heme and reactive oxygen species. Because of this, the protein has attracted great interest as a potential pharmaceutical candidate for treatment of acute kidney injury and preeclampsia. The aim of this study was to explore the possibility of expressing human A1M in plants through transient gene expression, as an alternative or complement to other expression systems. E. coli, insect and mammalian cell culture have previously been used for recombinant A1M (rA1M) or A1M production, but these systems have various drawbacks, including additional complication and expense in refolding for E. coli, while insect produced rA1M is heavily modified with chromophores and mammalian cell culture has been used only in analytical scale. For that purpose, we have used a viral vector (pJL-TRBO) delivered by Agrobacterium for expression of three modified A1M gene variants in the leaves of N. benthamiana. The results showed that these modified rA1M protein variants, A1M-NB1, A1M-NB2 and A1M-NB3, targeted to the cytosol, ER and extracellular space, respectively, were successfully expressed in the leaves, which was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis. The cytosol accumulated A1M-NB1 was selected for further analysis, as it appeared to have a higher yield than the other variants, and was purified with a yield of ca. 50 mg/kg leaf. The purified protein had the expected structural and functional properties, displaying heme-binding capacity and capacity of protecting red blood cells against stress-induced cell death. The protein also carried bound chromophores, a characteristic feature of A1M and an indicator of a capacity to bind small molecules. The study showed that expression of the functional protein in N. benthamiana may be an attractive alternative for production of rA1M for pharmaceutical purposes and a basis for future research on A1M structure and function.Keywords
α(1)-microglobulin; N; benthamiana; agroinfiltration; stress protection; pharmaceutical use; heme bindingPublished in
Frontiers in Plant Science2020, volume: 11, article number: 593773
Publisher: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
Authors' information
Carlsson, Magnus (Carlsson, Magnus )
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Breeding
Kristiansson, Amanda
Lund University
Bergwik, Jesper
Lund University
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Breeding
Bulow, Leif
Lund University
Akerstrom, Bo
Lund University
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant Breeding
UKÄ Subject classification
Plant Biotechnology
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.593773
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/110094