On the expression of recombinant Cas9 protein in E. coli BL21(DE3) and BL21(DE3) Rosetta strains

The CRISPR-Cas9 system is a new tool that has been extensively used for genome editing. The system is composed of a Cas9 endonuclease, which has the function of cleaving DNA at a specific site, and a guide RNA (gRNA), which contains the sequence of the cleavage site that is the target of editing. Despite the great interest that has been generated because of the utility of Cas 9 as a molecular tool and a potential therapeutic protein, the production of the 158 kDa recombinant Cas9 protein derived from Streptococcus pyogenes remains a challenge. Here, we systematically evaluated the expression of recombinant Cas9 protein in two different E. coli strains in complex and defined media. The recombinant protein showed improved expression in E. coli BL21(DE3), while only traces of Cas9 protein could be detected in the Rosetta (DE3) strain as a result of much lower mRNA levels. The greatest Cas9 protein expression in defined media containing glucose was observed at an induction temperature of 30 °C and with 8 h of post induction time using IPTG in shake flasks. The protein concentration obtained during a batch bioreactor culture was approximately 420.1 mg/L with 6 h of post induction time. The results demonstrated the possibility of efficient Cas9 protein expression in batch mode using E. coli BL21(DE3) and a simple defined medium and also showed the potential for further improvements that could facilitate large-scale production.