Salt-sensitive intein for large-scale polypeptide production

In this chapter, we propose to use salt-sensitive intein as a fusion protein to promote polypeptide expression; the removal of intein from the target sequence requires no enzyme, only a buffer change. The method will be particularly helpful for large-scale polypeptide preparations. Intein is an enzyme that can perform N- and C-terminal self-cleavage. Upon introduction of a mutation to eliminate the N-terminal cleavage activity, the C-terminal cleavage function can still be preserved. This feature was used to develop intein as a fusion protein through conjugation with a given sequence to promote protein expression in a biosynthesis system. Fused intein could later be separated from the target sequence through a C-terminal self-cleavage reaction. Here, a type of salt-sensitive intein is characterized in which ionic strength becomes an effector to control the self-cleavage activity. Low salt concentrations favor the cleavage reaction. Thus, using salt-sensitive intein as a fusion protein simply requires a buffer change to activate the self-cleavage mechanism, which makes it an enzyme-free process. This process has many advantages, including low cost, no extra residue remaining after cleavage, feasibility for preparing proteins starting from a non-Met codon and a special benefit for producing isotope-labeled peptides.