Aggregation as bacterial inclusion bodies does not imply inactivation of enzymes and fluorescent proteins

Many enzymes of industrial interest are not in the market since they are bio-produced as bacterial inclusion bodies, believed to be biologically inert aggregates of insoluble protein.

By using two structurally and functionally different model enzymes and two fluorescent proteins we show that physiological aggregation in bacteria might only result in a moderate loss of biological activity and that inclusion bodies can be used in reaction mixtures for efficient catalysis.

This observation offers promising possibilities for the exploration of inclusion bodies as catalysts for industrial purposes, without any previous protein-refolding step.