Traceless protein splicing utilizing evolved split inteins.

ABSTRACT: Split inteins are parasitic genetic elements frequently found inserted into reading frames of essential proteins. Their association and excision restore host protein function through a protein self-splicing reaction. They have gained an increasingly important role in the chemical modification of proteins to create cyclical, segmentally labeled, and fluorescently tagged proteins. Ideally, inteins would seamlessly splice polypeptides together with no remnant sequences and at high efficiency. Here, we describe experiments that identify the branched intermediate, a transient step in the overall splicing reaction, as a key determinant of the splicing efficiency at different splice-site junctions. To alter intein specificity, we developed a cell-based selection scheme to evolve split inteins tha

SUBMITTER: Lockless SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2708728 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature