Functional Overexpression of Membrane Proteins in E. coli: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Overexpression of properly folded membrane proteins is a mandatory step for their functional and structural characterization. One of the most used expression systems for the production of proteins is Escherichia coli. Many advantageous strains combined with T7 expression systems have been developed over the years. Recently, we showed that the choice of the strain is critical for the functionality of membrane proteins, even when the proteins are successfully incorporated in the membrane (Mathieu et al. Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):2654). Notably, the amount and/or activity of the T7-RNA polymerase, which drives the transcription of the genes of interest, may indirectly affect the folding and functionality of overexpressed membrane proteins. Moreover, we reported a general trend in which mild detergents mainly extract the population of active membrane proteins, whereas a harsher detergent like Fos-choline 12 could solubilize them irrespectively of their functionality. Based on these observations, we provide some guidelines to optimize the quality of membrane proteins overexpressed in E. coli.