A cleavable N-terminal signal peptide promotes widespread olfactory receptor surface expression in HEK293T cells

PLoS One. 2013 Jul 1;8(7):e68758. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068758. Print 2013.

Abstract

Olfactory receptors (ORs) are G protein-coupled receptors that detect odorants in the olfactory epithelium, and comprise the largest gene family in the genome. Identification of OR ligands typically requires OR surface expression in heterologous cells; however, ORs rarely traffic to the cell surface when exogenously expressed. Therefore, most ORs are orphan receptors with no known ligands. To date, studies have utilized non-cleavable rhodopsin (Rho) tags and/or chaperones (i.e. Receptor Transporting Protein, RTP1S, Ric8b and G(αolf)) to improve surface expression. However, even with these tools, many ORs still fail to reach the cell surface. We used a test set of fifteen ORs to examine the effect of a cleavable leucine-rich signal peptide sequence (Lucy tag) on OR surface expression in HEK293T cells. We report here that the addition of the Lucy tag to the N-terminus increases the number of ORs reaching the cell surface to 7 of the 15 ORs (as compared to 3/15 without Rho or Lucy tags). Moreover, when ORs tagged with both Lucy and Rho were co-expressed with previously reported chaperones (RTP1S, Ric8b and G(αolf)), we observed surface expression for all 15 receptors examined. In fact, two-thirds of Lucy-tagged ORs are able to reach the cell surface synergistically with chaperones even when the Rho tag is removed (10/15 ORs), allowing for the potential assessment of OR function with only an 8-amino acid Flag tag on the mature protein. As expected for a signal peptide, the Lucy tag was cleaved from the mature protein and did not alter OR-ligand binding and signaling. Our studies demonstrate that widespread surface expression of ORs can be achieved in HEK293T cells, providing promise for future large-scale deorphanization studies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Cell Membrane / metabolism*
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Gene Expression
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Protein Sorting Signals*
  • Protein Transport
  • Receptors, Odorant / chemistry
  • Receptors, Odorant / genetics*
  • Receptors, Odorant / metabolism*
  • Rhodopsin / genetics

Substances

  • Protein Sorting Signals
  • Receptors, Odorant
  • Rhodopsin