Modifications of wheat germ cell-free system for functional proteomics of plant membrane proteins

Functional proteomics of plant membrane proteins is an important approach to understand the comprehensive architecture of each metabolic pathway in plants. One bottleneck in the characterization of membrane proteins is the difficulty in producing sufficient quantities of functional protein for analysis. Here, we describe three methods for membrane protein production utilizing a wheat germ cell-free protein expression system. Owing to the open nature of cell-free synthesis reaction, protein synthesis can be modified with components necessary to produce functional protein. In this way we have developed modifications to a wheat germ cell-free system for the production of functional membrane proteins. Supplementation of liposomes or detergents allows the synthesis of functional integral membrane proteins. Furthermore, supplementation of myristic acid enables synthesis of N-myristylated peripheral membrane proteins. These modified cell-free synthesis methods facilitate the preparation and subsequent functional analyses of a wide variety of membrane proteins.