Expression of cloned genes in prokaryotes such as Escherichia coli is a widely used technique in both basic research and biotechnology. Despite the availability of several E. coli expression vector systems, adequate levels of expression may not be achieved. Expressing proteins as fusions to the highly conserved eukaryotic protein ubiquitin has been reported by several investigators to enhance protein yield in both bacterial and eukaryotic systems. We have modified this technique by the co-expression in E. coli of a ubiquitin-fusion protein and the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ubiquitin-specific protease Ubp2. This allows the co-translational cleavage of engineered ubiquitin-fusion proteins expressed in E. coli. This system was used to express a human Pi class glutathione S-transferase (GST) GSTP1 as well as two mutant GSTP1 derivatives, Trp39-->Cys and Gln52-->Glu. The yield of these enzymes was improved 40-fold by using the ubiquitin-fusion/co-translational cleavage technique, and no uncleaved product was detected. The Trp39-->Cys mutant was totally devoid of GST activity, while the activity of the Gln52-->Glu mutant was reduced to 6% of wild-type GSTP1-1. As both of the mutated residues map within the glutathione-binding site, the reduced GST activity is consistent with a marked reduction in glutathione binding ability.

We have isolated the 5′ flanking regions of two human Alpha class glutathione S-transferase genes, GSTA1 and GSTA2. The two genes share 95% sequence identity between nucleotide positions −1,300 and +500 from the transcriptional start site. Various DNA fragments from the 5′ flanking region of the GSTA1 gene were fused to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene and transfected into HepG2 cells. The results indicated that negative regulatory and enhancer elements are located in the sequence upstream of the GSTA1 gene. Sequence analysis and functional assays have not found any evidence for xenobiotic- or antioxidant-responsive elements previously described in rodent Alpha class genes. Thus the transcriptional regulation of the human Alpha class glutathione S-transferase genes may be dramatically different from the regulation of Alpha class glutathione S-transferase genes in rodents.

Recently, Bora et al. (Bora, P. S., Bora, N. S., Wu, X., and Lange, L. G. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 16774-16777) reported the cloning and expression of a human fatty acid ethyl ester synthase III (FAEES-III) cDNA that has only four amino acid substitutions compared with human glutathione S-transferase (GST) GSTP1-1, and, when expressed in MCF-7 cells, the protein has both FAEES and GST activities. By site-directed mutagenesis of a GSTP1 cDNA, we have constructed a clone that encodes the FAEES-III protein described by Bora et al. (1991). The recombinant FAEES-III protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and has been shown to be devoid of FAEES and GST activities. The recombinant FAEES-III protein does not bind to a glutathione agarose affinity matrix, presumably because two of the substituted amino acids, Trp-39-->Cys and Gln-52-->Glu, are thought to contribute to the GST glutathione binding site. One of the base substitutions in the FAEES-III cDNA encodes an extra SacI site not found in the GSTPI cDNA. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of human genomic DNA has identified the GSTPI gene, but no DNA from the proposed FAEES gene with a diagnostic SacI site has been detected. Evaluation of the hybridization pattern of HindIII genomic restriction fragments has identified fragments that contain the GSTPI gene and a pseudogene (Board et al. 1992), and there do not appear to be any hybridizing fragments that could contain the FAEES-III gene. Our results do not provide any evidence in support of a relationship between FAEES-III and GST, and the cDNA reported by Bora et al. (1991) may have resulted from a cloning artifact.