Cold adaptation of a psychrophilic chaperoninfrom Psychrobacter sp. and its application for heterologousprotein expression

Abstract

Objectives A chaperonin, PsyGroELS, from the Antarctic psychrophilic bacterium <em>Psychrobacter</em> sp. PAMC21119, was examined for its role in cold adaptation when expressed in a mesophilic Escherichia coli strain. Results Growth of<em> E. coli </em>harboring PsyGroELS at 10 C was increased compared to the control strain. A co-expression system using PsyGroELS was developed to increase productivity of the psychrophilic enzyme PsyEst9. PsyEst9 was cloned and expressed using three <em>E. coli</em> variants that co-expressed GroELS from PAMC21119,<em> E. coli</em>, or Oleispira antarctica RB8T. Co-expression with PsyGroELS was more effective for the production of PsyEst9 compared tothe other chaperonins. Conclusion PsyGroELS confers cold tolerance to <em>E. coli</em>, and shows potential as an effective coexpression system for the stable production of psychrophilic proteins.