Disulphide bonds, recombinant proteins

Recently, active recombinant a-LTX has been generated using bacteria in which both thioredoxin reductase and glutathione reductase are inactivated to improve the formation of disulphide bonds in expressed proteins (Li et al. 2005). The toxin is expressed as a fusion with glutathione-S-transferase (GST), which is used for affinity purification of the recombinant toxin and can be subsequently removed by selective proteolysis. Considering the relative ease of generating recombinant proteins in bacteria, this approach will facilitate structure-function studies of a-LTX. 

---