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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Green Fluorescent Protein-based Expression Screening of Membrane Proteins in Escherichia coli
Published on: January 6, 2015
High-level periplasmic expression in Escherichia coli using a eukaryotic signal peptide: importance of codon usage at
D P Humphreys1, M Sehdev, A P Chapman
1Celltech-Chiroscience, 216 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 4EN, United Kingdom. dhumphre@celltech.co.uk
Abstract:
We investigated the ability of signal peptides of eukaryotic origin (human, mouse, and yeast) to efficiently direct model proteins to the Escherichia coli periplasm. These were compared against a well-characterized prokaryotic signal peptide-OmpA. Surprisingly, eukaryotic signal peptides can work very efficiently in E. coli, but require optimization of codon usage by codon-based mutagenesis of the signal peptide coding region. Analysis of the 5' of periplasmic and cytoplasmic E. coli genes shows some codon usage differences.
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