Protein purification, elastin-like polypeptides

Wu WY, Fong BA, Gilles AG, Wood DW (2009) Recombinant protein purification by selfcleaving elastin-like polypeptide fusion tag. Curr Protoc Prot Sci 26.4 21-18... 

Conley AJ, Joensuu JJ, Jevnikar AM, Menassa R, Biandle JE (2009) Optimization of elastin-like polypeptide fusions for expression and purification of recombinant proteins in plants. Biotechnol Bioeng 103 562-573... 

In addition to the commonly used synthetic polymers such as pNIPAM and poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (PVCL), elastin-like polymers were introduced as thermoresponsive polymers for affinity precipitation (Shimazu et al., 2003). An elastin-like polymer consists of the repeating penta-peptide, Val-Pro-Gly-Xaa-Gly (Xaa being any amino acid except proline). It undergoes reversible phase transition under temperature or salt concentration changes similar to pNIPAM (Shimazu et a/., 2003). An elastin-like polymer was used as a terminal tag for the facilitation of recombinant protein purification as attaching it to the hydrolase enzyme improves its purification. Purification, in excess of 1300-fold was achieved after two cycles of reversible changes of elastin-like polypeptide conformation precipitation induced by environmental changes (Shimazu et al., 2003). 

Tlie elastin-like polypeptides have been also tested as carriers for metalbinding ligands (Stiborova e/ai,2003).The synthesised elastin-like polymer was chemically modified by introducing imidazole functionality. Purification of His-tag proteins, ]8-D-galactose and chloramphenicol acetyl transferase was performed in a manner similar to pNIPAM-vinyl imidazole systems. 

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are thermoresponsive biopolymers with a broad range of biotechnological applications including tissue engineering, drug delivery, biosensing, and protein purification [118, 119]. like PNIPAAm, ELPs also... 

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