Two-promoter vector is highly efficient for overproduction of protein complexes

The use of bicistronic vectors, which contain two target genes under one promoter, has been the most common practice for the heterologous production of binary protein complexes. The major problem of this method is the much lower expression of the second gene compared with that of the first gene next to the promoter. We tested a simple idea of whether inclusion of an additional promoter in front of the second gene may remove the problem. Compared with bicistronic vectors, corresponding two-promoter vectors yielded four to nine times larger amounts of the complexes between BCL-2 family proteins, BCL-X(L):BAD, BCL-X(L):BIM-S, and CED-9:EGL-1 in bacterial cells as a result of significantly increased expression of the second genes in a manner independent of the order of the target genes. With the two-promoter system, we produced two other complexes in large quantity suitable for extensive crystallization trial. The method does not accompany any technical disadvantages, and represents a significant improvement from the conventional method, which should enjoy wide application for the coexpression of binary or higher order protein complexes by extension.