A major barrier to the physical characterization and structure determination of membrane proteins is low yield in recombinant expression. To address this problem, we have designed a selection strategy to isolate mutant strains of Escherichia coli that improve the expression of a targeted membrane protein. In this method, the coding sequence of the membrane protein of interest is fused to a C-terminal selectable marker, so that the production of the selectable marker and survival on selective media is linked to expression of the targeted membrane protein. Thus, mutant strains with improved expression properties can be directly selected. We also introduce a rapid method for curing isolated strains of the plasmids used during the selection process, in which the plasmids are removed by in vivo digestion with the homing endonuclease I-CreI. We tested this selection system on a rhomboid family protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Rv1337) and were able to isolate mutants, which we call EXP strains, with up to 75-fold increased expression. The EXP strains also improve the expression of other membrane proteins that were not the target of selection, in one case roughly 90-fold.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pro.39 | DOI Listing |
N Engl J Med
January 2025
From the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) Foundation (C.E.G., E.P.M., N.W., P.R., I.L.W., A.M.B.) and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine-UPMC Hillman Cancer Center (C.E.G., N.W., P.R., A.M.B.) - both in Pittsburgh; AGO-B and Helios Klinikum Berlin-Buch, Berlin (M.U.), the National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, and German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg (A.S.), Evangelische Kliniken Gelsenkirchen, Gelsenkirchen (H.H.F.), Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gynäkologische Onkologie-Breast and Sana Klinikum Offenbach, Offenbach (C.J.), the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital Erlangen, Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen (P.A.F.), German Breast Group, Neu-Isenburg (P.W., S.L.), and the Center for Hematology and Oncology Bethanien, Goethe University, Frankfurt (S.L.) - all in Germany; National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan (C.-S.H.); Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo (M.S.M.); Orlando Health Cancer Institute, Orlando, FL (E.P.M.); Hospital Universitario La Paz-Instituto de Investigación del Hospital Universitario La Paz, Madrid (A.R.); L'Institut du Cancer de Montpellier-Val d'Aurelle, Montpellier (V.D.), Institut Bergonié, INSERM Unité 1312, and Université de Bordeaux UFR Sciences Médicales, Bordeaux (H.R.B.) - all in France; Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, OR (A.K.C.); the Department of Surgery, Oncology, and Gastroenterology, University of Padua, and Oncology 2, Istituto Oncologico Veneto IRCCS, Padua (V.G.), and the Cancer Center Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo (E.R.C.) - all in Italy; Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA (I.L.W.); the National Cancer Institute, Mexico City (C.A.-S.); Yale University School of Medicine, Yale Cancer Center, and Smilow Cancer Hospital, New Haven, CT (M.P.D.); the All-Ireland Cooperative Oncology Research Group (J.P.C.), and the Oncology Unit, Cancer Clinical Trials and Research Unit, Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre, and Cancer Trials Ireland (B.T.H.) - all in Dublin; Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China (Z.S.); Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia, Belgrade (L.S.); Grupo Médico Ángeles, Guatemala City, Guatemala (H.C.-S.); Roche Products, Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom (A.K., A.S.); and F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland (C.L., T.B., B.N., E.R.).
Background: Patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive early breast cancer with residual invasive disease after neoadjuvant systemic therapy have a high risk of recurrence and death. The primary analysis of KATHERINE, a phase 3, open-label trial, showed that the risk of invasive breast cancer or death was 50% lower with adjuvant trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) than with trastuzumab alone.
Methods: We randomly assigned patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer with residual invasive disease in the breast or axilla after neoadjuvant systemic treatment with taxane-based chemotherapy and trastuzumab to receive T-DM1 or trastuzumab for 14 cycles.
Sci Adv
January 2025
Centre for Misfolding Diseases, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK.
Several human disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), are characterized by the aberrant formation of amyloid fibrils. In many cases, the amyloid core is flanked by disordered regions, known as fuzzy coat. The structural properties of fuzzy coats, and their interactions with their environments, however, have not been fully described to date.
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January 2025
Fels Cancer Institute for Personalized Medicine, Department of Cancer & Cellular Biology, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19140, USA.
Arthritis leads to bone erosion due to an imbalance between osteoclast and osteoblast function. Our prior investigations revealed that the Ca-selective ion channel, Orai1, is critical for osteoclast maturation. Here, we show that the small-molecule ELP-004 preferentially inhibits transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) channels.
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January 2025
Center for Quantitative Biology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Bacterial social interactions play crucial roles in various ecological, medical, and biotechnological contexts. However, predicting these interactions from genome sequences is notoriously difficult. Here, we developed bioinformatic tools to predict whether secreted iron-scavenging siderophores stimulate or inhibit the growth of community members.
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January 2025
International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS), University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 3058575, Japan.
The formation of new social interactions is vital for social animals, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. We identified CeA neurons, a population in central amygdala expressing neuropeptide B/W receptor-1 (NPBWR1), that play a critical role in these interactions. CeA neurons were activated during encounters with unfamiliar, but not with familiar, mice.
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