Improving the Productivity of Recombinant Protein in Escherichia coli Under Thermal Stress by Coexpressing GroELS Chaperone System

Abstract

Here, we demonstrate that the overexpression of the GroELS chaperone system, which assists the folding of intracellular proteins and prevents aggregation of its biological targets, can enhance the thermotolerance of Escherichia coli strains and facilitate the production of recombinant protein under thermal stress. The overexpression of GroELS led to an about 2-fold higher growth rate of E. coli XL-1 blue than control at 45 degrees C and induced the growth of the strain even at 50 degrees C, although the growth was not sustained in the second-round culture. The effect of GroELS overexpression was also effective on other E. coli strains such as JM109, DH5 alpha, and BL21. Finally, we have shown that coexpression of GroELS allows us to produce recombinant protein even at 50 degrees C, a temperature at which the protein production based on E. coli is not efficient. This study indicates that the employment of the GroELS overexpression system can expand the range of environmental conditions for E. coli.