pEF6/V5-His TOPO™ TA Expression Kit

We do not recommend storing competent E. coli strains in liquid nitrogen as the extreme temperature can be harmful to the cells. Also, the plastic storage vials are not intended to withstand the extreme temperature and may crack or break.

We recommend storing our competent E. coli strains at -80°C. Storage at warmer temperatures, even for a brief period of time, will significantly decrease transformation efficiency.

No. However, you can visually tell if MembranePro particles formed via a pellet at the bottom of the tube following precipitation. You can also test the function of your MembranePro particles via receptor-ligand binding studies.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Expression Support Center.

We offer the MembranePro Functional Protein Expression System for the expression and display of mammalian cell surface membrane proteins, including G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), in an aqueous-soluble format. The system uses virus-like particles (VLPs) to capture lipid raft regions of the cell’s plasma membrane as the VLPs are secreted from the cell. Using this system, it is possible to capture and display endogenous or overexpressed GPCRs and other cell surface membrane proteins in their native context for downstream assays. Since the VLPs are packaged by the cell and secreted into the culture medium, VLPs allow for the isolation of functional membrane proteins by simply decanting and clarifying the culture medium, and isolating the VLPs by precipitation. This represents a substantial savings in time, effort, and required machinery over preparing cell membrane fractions. Because VLPs capture receptor-rich regions of the plasma membrane, your GPCR may also be substantially enriched over crude membrane preparations.

The standard MembranePro Functional Protein Expression System is offered in two configurations: The MembranePro Functional Protein Expression Kit (Cat. No. A11667), which provides the convenience of a complete kit with all the reagents supplied for 10 reactions, and the MembranePro Functional Protein Support Kit, which includes the reagents for functional expression of membrane proteins but does not contain the expression vector cloning module or the 293FT host cells. The MembranePro Functional Protein Support Kit is offered in three sizes, allowing 10, 60, or 600 reactions (Cat. Nos. A11668, A11669, A11670, respectively).

For high-yield expression of functional membrane proteins in Exp293F cells, we offer the Expi293 MembranePro Expression System (Cat. Nos. A25869, A25870) that combines the scalability and ease of use of Expi293 and the technology of MembranePro to allow an increase of more than 20-fold in membrane protein yield compared to the standard, adherent culture MembranePro Functional Protein Expression System. Please see the Application Note for more details.

Note: Expi293F cells (Cat. No. A14527) and pEF6 V5 His TOPO Expression Vector Kit (Cat. No. K961020) are not supplied with the Expi293 MembranePro Expression System and have to be purchased separately as required.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Expression Support Center.

The consensus Kozak sequence is A/G NNATGG, where the ATG indicates the initiation codon. Point mutations in the nucleotides surrounding the ATG have been shown to modulate translation efficiency. Although we make a general recommendation to include a Kozak consensus sequence, the necessity depends on the gene of interest and often, the ATG alone may be sufficient for efficient translation initiation. The best advice is to keep the native start site found in the cDNA unless one knows that it is not functionally ideal. If concerned about expression, it is advisable to test two constructs, one with the native start site and the other with a consensus Kozak. In general, all expression vectors that have an N-terminal fusion will already have an initiation site for translation.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Expression Support Center.