Targeted protein degradation in Escherichia coli using CLIPPERs

New, universal tools for targeted protein degradation in bacteria can help to accelerate protein function studies and antimicrobial research. We describe a new method for degrading bacterial proteins using plasmid-encoded degrader peptides which deliver target proteins for degradation by a highly conserved ClpXP protease. We demonstrate the mode of action of the degraders on a challenging essential target, GroEL. The studies in bacteria are complemented by in vitro binding and structural studies. Expression of degrader peptides results in a temperature-dependent growth inhibition and depletion of GroEL levels over time. The reduction of GroEL levels is accompanied by dramatic proteome alterations. The presented method offers a new alternative approach for regulating protein levels in bacteria without genomic modifications or tag fusions. Our studies demonstrate that ClpXP is an attractive protease for the future use in bacterial-targeted protein degradation.