1. What is the advantage of using the SUMO system?

Many engineered/designer proteins or single-chain antibodies are poorly expressed. Fusion with SUMO/SUMOstar enhances the stability, solubility, and yield of a protein. SUMO is one of the most conserved proteins in eukaryotes and have been shown to post-translationally modify a number of proteins in cells. SUMOylation plays an important role in various cellular process such as nuclear-cytosolic transport, transcriptional regulation, and protein stability. SUMO/SUMOstar-fusion leads to a dramatic enhancement of expression in E. coli, yeast, insect, and mammalian cells and promotes correct folding and hence biological activity. Additionally, this system simplifies and lowers the costs associated with protein expression and purification. Using this technology, a plethora of proteins have been shown to enhance their expression, stability, and yield.

2. What proteins have been previously expressed with SUMO?

SUMO has been used with a range of proteins for a variety of purposes. We included a table attached to our SUMO technology page that has a range of proteins, as well as additional information from each scientific publication. SUMO system has been used at more than a thousand labs around the world. Almost all members of each protein family have been expressed using the SUMO system in a variety of hosts. We encourage reaching out, as we have included a partial list of references, but our library is growing constantly in this cutting edge of research.

 

3. What is the difference between SUMOpro and SUMOstar?

SUMOstar extends the benefits of our SUMO system to eukaryotes. Therefore SUMOstar is preferred expression system for all difficult to express proteins in mammalian and other eukaryotic cells. SUMOstar fusion cannot be cleaved with SUMOprotease or SUMO protease II as the tag is engineered not to be cleaved. The SUMOstar tag can only be cleaved with SUMOstar protease.

5. What is the SUMOpro3 system?

LifeSensors discovered that human SUMO is superior for E.coli expression of some of the proteins in E.coli. Therefore we developed human SUMO system and called it SUMOpro3. SUMOpro3 tag is best cleaved with SUMO protease 2, that is a human de-SUMOylase. Please contact us to help you evaluate the best system for your specific needs.

LifeSensors discovered that human SUMO is superior for E.coli expression of some of the proteins in E.coli. Therefore we developed human SUMO system and called it SUMOpro3. SUMOpro3 tag is best cleaved with SUMO protease 2, that is a human de-SUMOylase. Please contact us to help you evaluate the best system for your specific needs.

6. What is included in a kit?

Our SUMO system kit offers everything you need to express your protein of interest in a given host. The kits include a SUMO plasmid where you can insert your gene of interest, the SUMO protease to cleave the SUMO tag, the SUMO protease control protein, and an antibody to detect our SUMO tag. The kits include a manual featuring a polylinker map of the vector for an easy cloning process.

7. What is the best way to ensure the protease removed the SUMO tag?

LifeSensors offers several antibodies to detect the SUMO tag. This allows you to check the efficiency of the protease cleavage by simple western blot methods. We recommend using this as a quality checkpoint when optimizing your expression system and protein purification. We are happy to help you implement best practices for protein expression and provide recommendation to get a high yield of active