Expression of Yeast Cyclophilin A (Cpr1) Provides Improved Stress Tolerance in Escherichia coli

Cyclophilins contain the conserved activity of cis-trans peptidyl-prolyl isomerase, which is implicated in protein folding, and function as molecular chaperones. When the yeast cyclophilin A gene (cpr1) was subcloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pKM260, it was found that the expression of Cpr1 drastically increased the cell viability of E. coil BL21 when under abiotic stress conditions, as in the presence of cadmium, copper, hydrogen peroxide, heat, and SDS. Therefore, this study illustrates the importance of Cpr1 as a molecular chaperone that can improve the cellular stress responses when E. coli cells are exposed to adverse conditions, while also demonstrating its potential to increase the stability of E. coli strains utilized for the production of recombinant proteins.