Expression and purification of the mammalian translocator protein for structural studies.

The translocator protein (TSPO) is an 18 kDa polytopic membrane protein of the outer mitochondrial membrane, abundantly present in the steroid-synthesising cells. TSPO has been linked to a number of disorders, and it is recognised as a promising drug target with a range of potential medical applicat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elisabeth Graeber, Volodymyr M Korkhov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2018-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5999236?pdf=render
Description
Summary:The translocator protein (TSPO) is an 18 kDa polytopic membrane protein of the outer mitochondrial membrane, abundantly present in the steroid-synthesising cells. TSPO has been linked to a number of disorders, and it is recognised as a promising drug target with a range of potential medical applications. Structural and biochemical characterisation of a mammalian TSPO requires expression and purification of the protein of high quality in sufficiently large quantities. Here we describe detailed procedures for heterologous expression and purification of mammalian TSPO in HEK293 cells. We demonstrate that the established procedures can be used for untagged TSPO as well as for C-terminally fused TSPO constructs. Our protocol can be routinely used to generate high-quality TSPO preparations for biochemical and structural studies.
ISSN:1932-6203