The regulatory elements of araBAD operon, contrary to lac-based expression systems, afford hypersynthesis of murine, and human interferons in Escherichia coli

The overexpression of four different interferons, i.e., murine interferon α1 and human interferons α1, α8, and α21 was challenged in Escherichia coli. Synthetic genes coding for these interferons were designed, assembled, and cloned into the vector pET9a (using the NdeI and BamHI sites), placing interferon expression under the control of phage T7 promoter. Despite an intensive screening for optimal culture conditions, no interferon synthesis was observed using overexpression systems based on the regulatory elements of lac operon (e.g., in E. coli BL21DE3). On the contrary, high levels of interferon expression were detected in E. coli BL21AI, which chromosome contains the gene coding for phage T7 RNA polymerase under the control of the araBAD promoter. To analyze the reasons of this striking difference, the molecular events associated with the lack of interferon expression in E. coli BL21DE3 were studied, and murine interferon a1 was chosen as a model system. Surprisingly, it was observed that this interferon represses the synthesis of T7 RNA polymerase in E. coli BL21DE3 and, in particular, the expression of lac operon. In fact, by determining β-galactosidase activity in E. coli BL21AI, a significantly lower LacZ activity was observed in cells induced to interferon synthesis. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.