Abstract Protein turnover is critical for proteostasis, but turnover quantification is challenging, and even in well-studiedE. coli, proteome-wide measurements remain scarce. Here, we quantify the turnover rates of ~3200E. coliproteins under 13 conditions by combining heavy isotope labeling with complement reporter ion quantification and find that cytoplasmic proteins are recycled when nitrogen is limited. We use knockout experiments to assign substrates to the known cytoplasmic ATP-dependent proteases. Surprisingly, none of these proteases are responsible for the observed cytoplasmic protein degradation in nitrogen limitation, suggesting that a major proteolysis pathway inE. coliremains to be discovered. Lastly, we show that protein degradation rates are generally independent of cell division rates. Thus, we present broadly applicable technology for protein turnover measurements and provide a rich resource for protein half-lives and protease substrates inE. coli, complementary to genomics data, that will allow researchers to study the control of proteostasis.
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A simple, robust, broadly applicable insertion mutagenesis method to create random fluorescent protein: target protein fusions
Abstract A simple, broadly applicable method was developed using an in vitro transposition reaction followed by transformation into Escherichia coli and screening plates for fluorescent colonies. The transposition reaction catalyzes the random insertion of a fluorescent protein open reading frame into a target gene on a plasmid. The transposition reaction is employed directly in an E. coli transformation with no further procedures. Plating at high colony density yields fluorescent colonies. Plasmids purified from fluorescent colonies contain random, in-frame fusion proteins into the target gene. The plate screen also results in expressed, stable proteins. A large library of chimeric proteins was produced, which was useful for downstream research. The effect of using different fluorescent proteins was investigated as well as the dependence of the linker sequence between the target and fluorescent protein open reading frames. The utility and simplicity of the method were demonstrated by the fact that it has been employed in an undergraduate biology laboratory class without failure over dozens of class sections. This suggests that the method will be useful in high-impact research at small liberal arts colleges with limited resources. However, in-frame fusion proteins were obtained from 8 different targets suggesting that the method is broadly applicable in any research setting.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2152496
- PAR ID:
- 10569175
- Editor(s):
- Hoffman, C
- Publisher / Repository:
- Genetics Society of America
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 2160-1836
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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