High yield and efficient expression and purification of the human 5-HT3A receptor

Aim:

To establish a method for efficient expression and purification of the human serotonin type 3A receptor (5-HT_3A) that is suitable for structural studies.

Methods:

Codon-optimized cDNA of human 5-HT_3A was inserted into a modified BacMam vector, which contained an IgG leader sequence, an 8×His tag linked with two-Maltose Binding Proteins (MBP), and a TEV protease cleavage site. The BacMam construct was used to generate baculoviruses for expression of 5-HT_3A in HEK293F cells. The proteins were solubilized from the membrane with the detergent C₁₂E ₉, and purified using MBP affinity chromatography. The affinity tag was removed by TEV protease treatment and immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography. The receptors were further purified by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). Western blot and SDS-PAGE were used to detect 5-HT_3A during purification. The purified receptor was used in crystallization and analyzed with negative stain electron microscopy (EM).

Results:

The BacMam system yielded 0.5 milligram of the human 5-HT_3A receptor per liter of cells. MBP affinity purification resulted in good yields with high purity and homogeneity. SEC profiles indicated that the purified receptors were pentameric. No protein crystals were obtained; however, a reconstructed 3D density map generated from the negative stain EM data fitted well with the mouse 5-HT_3A structure.

Conclusion:

With the BacMam system, robust expression of the human 5-HT_3A receptor is obtained, which is monodisperse, therefore enabling 3D reconstruction of an EM map. This method is suitable for high-throughput screening of different constructs, thus facilitating structural and biochemical studies of the 5-HT_3A receptor.