Synthetic biology is a nascent discipline that aims to design and construct new biological systems beyond those found in nature, ultimately using them to probe, control, or even replace existing biological systems. The success of synthetic biology depends on the assembly of a set of well-defined and modular tools. These tools should ideally be mutually compatible, reusable in different contexts, and have minimum crosstalk with endogenous proteins of the subject. The tobacco etch virus protease (TEV protease, TEVp) is a suitable candidate for such a tool due to its unique substrate specificity and high efficiency. Importantly, TEVp is capable of imitating proteolysis, a ubiquitous mechanism in nature for post-translational modifications and signal propagation. Here, TEVp is employed as a self-contained proteolytic device capable of executing biological tasks that are otherwise governed by endogenous proteins and processes. Consequently, the goal of using TEVp for synthetic manipulation of biosystems is achieved. First, a single-vector multiple gene expression strategy utilizing TEVp self-cleavage was created. This approach was used for the robust expression of up to three genes in both bacterial and mammalian cells with consistent stoichiometry. The products can then be individually purified or targeted to distinct subcellular compartments respectively. Second, a temperature-inducible TEVp was created by incremental truncation of TEVp. The 18th truncation of TEVp (tsTEVp) resulted in negligible activity at 37 °C, but retained sufficient activity at 30 °C for rapid processing of its substrates in several mammalian cell cultures. Finally, tsTEVp was applied in the context of other synthetic modules to generate a variety of biological responses. Its versatility was demonstrated as cellular processes including protein localization, cellular blebbing, protein degradation, and cell death were rewired to respond to the physical stimulus of temperature.

Synthetic biology is a nascent discipline that aims to design and construct new biological systems beyond those found in nature, ultimately using them to probe, control, or even replace existing biological systems. The success of synthetic biology depends on the assembly of a set of well-defined and modular tools. These tools should ideally be mutually compatible, reusable in different contexts, and have minimum crosstalk with endogenous proteins of the subject. The tobacco etch virus protease (TEV protease, TEVp) is a suitable candidate for such a tool due to its unique substrate specificity and high efficiency. Importantly, TEVp is capable of imitating proteolysis, a ubiquitous mechanism in nature for post-translational modifications and signal propagation. Here, TEVp is employed as a self-contained proteolytic device capable of executing biological tasks that are otherwise governed by endogenous proteins and processes. Consequently, the goal of using TEVp for synthetic manipulation of biosystems is achieved. First, a single-vector multiple gene expression strategy utilizing TEVp self-cleavage was created. This approach was used for the robust expression of up to three genes in both bacterial and mammalian cells with consistent stoichiometry. The products can then be individually purified or targeted to distinct subcellular compartments respectively. Second, a temperature-inducible TEVp was created by incremental truncation of TEVp. The 18th truncation of TEVp (tsTEVp) resulted in negligible activity at 37 °C, but retained sufficient activity at 30 °C for rapid processing of its substrates in several mammalian cell cultures. Finally, tsTEVp was applied in the context of other synthetic modules to generate a variety of biological responses. Its versatility was demonstrated as cellular processes including protein localization, cellular blebbing, protein degradation, and cell death were rewired to respond to the physical stimulus of temperature.

<p>A method describing the expression and purification of PSI-N together with fusion protein, using affinity chromatography and TEV protease. Although the method proved successful, optimization is still needed due to partial degradation of PSI-N.</p>

A method describing the expression and purification of PSI-N together with fusion protein, using affinity chromatography and TEV protease. Although the method proved successful, optimization is still needed due to partial degradation of PSI-N.

Les besoins en protéines recombinantes dans les diverses activités des bio-industries a considérablement augmenté ces dernières années. Cependant, les procédés de leur production sont encore limités par le manque de marqueurs permettant de suivre l'expression et la purification des protéines d'intérêt, la formation des corps d'inclusion et les faibles degrés de pureté.Afin de pallier à ces difficultés, nous avons développé et mis en œuvre un nouveau procédé de production et de purification de protéines recombinantes chez Escherichia coli. Ce procédé est basé sur l'utilisation d'une cassette d'expression appelée Multitags et sur le clivage par une TEV protéase immobilisée sur une matrice de streptavidine. Le Multitags comporte, à partir de son extrémité N-terminale, un double tag d'affinité (10xHis et SBP), le domaine de fixation de l'hème du cytochrome b5 et le site de clivage de la TEV protéase. En utilisant deux modèles différents de protéine d'intérêt (MyRIP et la Pfu DNA polymérase), nous avons montré l'efficacité du cytochrome b5 dans le suivi visuel et quantitatif par mesure d'absorbance des différentes étapes de production et de purification. Nous avons obtenu plus de 90% de chacune des deux protéines de fusion dans la phase soluble. L'application d'une chromatographie double via les deux tags d'affinité 10xHis et SBP a permis d'atteindre un degré de pureté du Multitags-MyRIP et du Multitag-Pfu de 99%. Nous avons construit des colonnes protéolytiques en produisant la TEV protéase sauvage et sa version mutée (S219V) en fusion avec le Streptag II et en immobilisant ces enzymes par affinité sur colonne de streptavidine-agarose. La caractérisation des colonnes protéolytiques et leur application aux protéines recombinantes d'intérêt modèles ont montré l'avantage de cette méthode d'immobilisation en termes d'activité protéase retenue, de stabilité des enzymes, de leur réutilisation et de simplification du schéma de purification et de récupération des protéines d'intérêt à haut degré de pureté. En conclusion, ces travaux de thèse ont permis de développer et de valider des outils innovants pour l'expression et la purification de protéines recombinantes. / In recent years, the need for recombinant proteins has substantially increased in various bio-industry activities. However, actual recombinant processes are still limited by the lack of markers allowing real-time expression and purification monitoring of target proteins, by inclusion bodies formation and by low quality of purity of the products. To overcome these difficulties, we have developed a new process for production and purification of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli. The method combines the use of a multifunctional expression cassette, termed Multitags and an immobilized modified TEV protease on a streptavidin matrix. The Multitags contains, its N-terminus, two affinity purification tags (10xHis and SBP) and as a marker tag, the heme-binding domain of cytochrome b5 followed by the TEV cleavage site. Using two model proteins (MyRIP and Pfu DNA polymerase), we have demonstrated the visual and the quantitative monitoring capability of the cytochrome b5 during the expression and purification steps. When expressed in E. coli KRX more than 90% of both fusion proteins were produced in a soluble form. In addition, high purity (99%) of Multitags-MyRIP and Multitags-Pfu was achieved after two consecutive affinity purification steps using the dual affinity tag. We also produced the wild-type and the S219V mutant TEV proteases fused to the Streptag II affinity sequence and realized their affinity immobilization on a streptavidin-agarose matrix. The characterization of the proteolytic columns and their application to the recombinant model proteins demonstrated the advantage of this immobilization method in terms of retaining activities, enzyme stabilities, possibility of reuse and simplification of the cleavage downstream steps.In conclusion, this study allowed the development and the validation of innovative tools for expression and purification of recombinant proteins.