Unveiling the CHO surfaceome: Identification of cell surface proteins reveals cell aggregation-relevant mechanisms.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) suspension cells are the main production hosts for biopharmaceuticals. For the improvement of production processes, it is essential to understand the interaction between CHO cells and their microenvironment. While the cellular membrane is the crucial surface barrier between the inner and outer cell compartments, the subgroup of cell surface proteins (surfaceome) is of particular interest due to its potential to react to external factors and initiate cell communication and interaction pathways. Therefore, the CHO surfaceome was explored for the first time by enriching exposed N-glycosylated membrane proteins before tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analyses, identifying a total of 449 surface proteins, including 34 proteins specific for production cells. Functional annotation and classification located most proteins to the cell surface belonging mainly to the protein classes of receptors, enzymes, and transporters. In addition, adhesion molecules as cadherins, integrins, Ig superfamily and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins as collagens, laminins, thrombospondin, fibronectin, and tenascin were significantly enriched, which are involved in mechanisms for the formation of cell junctions, cell-cell and cell-ECM adhesion as focal adhesions. As cell adhesion and aggregation counteracts scalable production of biopharmaceuticals, experimental validation confirmed differential expression of integrin ß1 (ITGB1) and ß3, CD44, laminin, and fibronectin on the surface of aggregation-prone CHO production cells. The subsequent modulation of the central interaction protein ITGB1 by small interfering RNA knockdown substantially counteracted cell aggregation pointing toward novel engineering routes for aggregation reduction in biopharmaceutical production cells and exemplifying the potential of the surfaceome for specified engineering strategies.

Operon structure and cotranslational subunit association direct protein assembly in bacteria.

Assembly of protein complexes is considered a posttranslational process involving random collision of subunits. We show that within the Escherichia coli cytosol, bacterial luciferase subunits LuxA and LuxB assemble into complexes close to the site of subunit synthesis. Assembly efficiency decreases markedly if subunits are synthesized on separate messenger RNAs from genes integrated at distant chromosomal sites. Subunit assembly initiates cotranslationally on nascent LuxB in vivo. The ribosome-associated chaperone trigger factor delays the onset of cotranslational interactions until the LuxB dimer interface is fully exposed. Protein assembly is thus directly coupled to the translation process and involves spatially confined, actively chaperoned cotranslational subunit interactions. Bacterial gene organization into operons therefore reflects a fundamental cotranslational mechanism for spatial and temporal regulation that is vital to effective assembly of protein complexes.