Intervening proteins (inteins) carry out a unique process that involves excising itself from out of a precursor polypeptide by cleaving two peptide bonds and ligating two external protein (extein) segments. This process, protein splicing, is spontaneous and occurs post-translationally. Inteins have been found in the genomes of unicellular organisms from all three domains of life yet no intein has shown any clear regulatory role for its host protein or any benefit to a host organism. There are two type of inteins, standard (cis) splicing inteins and split (trans) splicing inteins. The use of split inteins can lend quick, simple, and less complex solutions to previous biochemical problems. Split inteins are transcribed and translated separately, and then spontaneously assemble and carry out protein splicing post-translationally. Protein and peptide cyclization, conditional protein splicing, and segmental isotopic labeling are all techniques that split inteins can simplify. Currently, relatively few inteins have been sufficiently characterized and made widely available for use in these research applications. One of our lab goals is therefore to elucidate properties of uncharacterized inteins and to make these inteins more widely available tools for research. One way in which we have been working toward this goal is through building and organizing an intein database. Our database currently has over 2500 inteins logged with information regarding their sequence, host organism and protein, insertion site, and N- and C-terminal extein sequences. Another important aspect of our database work has been reformatting and organizing it in a way that makes it more universally accessible. Moving forward, in addition to continuing to expand and further organize our database, our lab will also continue to work toward characterizing and improving the splicing efficiency of certain inteins to improve intein technology overall and to allow for more widespread use of this important biochemical tool.

Discovering and characterizing inteins in all domains of life

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.