Engine out of the chassis: Cell-free protein synthesis and its uses

• Published in: FEBS letters Vol. 588; no. 2; pp. 261 - 268
• Main Authors: Rosenblum, Gabriel, Cooperman, Barry S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier B.V 21-01-2014
• Subjects: Animals; Cell-free protein synthesis; Cell-Free System - metabolism; Genetic Engineering - methods; High throughput; Humans; Protein Biosynthesis; Transcription; Translation; High throughput; Translation; Transcription; Cell-free protein synthesis
• ISSN: 0014-5793; 1873-3468
• DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2013.10.016

The translation machinery is the engine of life. Extracting the cytoplasmic milieu from a cell affords a lysate capable of producing proteins in concentrations reaching to tens of micromolar. Such lysates, derivable from a variety of cells, allow the facile addition and subtraction of components that are directly or indirectly related to the translation machinery and/or the over-expressed protein. The flexible nature of such cell-free expression systems, when coupled with high throughput monitoring, can be especially suitable for protein engineering studies, allowing one to bypass multiple steps typically required using conventional in vivo protein expression.