Improvement in the Orthogonal Protein Degradation in Escherichia coli by Truncated mf-ssrA Tag

SsrA peptide tag from Mycoplasma fl orum has been developed as a versatile biotechnology tool to control orthogonal degradation of tagged proteins in Escherichia coli . Here, using the systematic deletion mutants of mf -ssrA tag, we demonstrated that the residues in two separate regions have diff erent functions in mf -Lon-mediated specifi c orthogonal target protein degradation in E. coli . The deletion of multiple residues, up to six amino acids, did not fatally abolish its specifi c degradation activity, instead of being able to improve the stability of the tagged protein in the presence of endogenous proteases before mf -Lon expression in E. coli . Except for previously identifi ed essential residues, the region adjacent to the C-terminal of the mf -ssrA tag was involved in mf -Lon and endogenous protease-mediated degradation. Moreover, the deletion of specifi c residues made the mf -ssrA tag more eff ective and compact. The mf -ssrA tag can be implemented in synthetic biology and bioengineering for development of synthetic circuits.