Intein-mediated Protein Engineering for Biosensor Fabrication

Abstract

Intein-mediated protein engineering has become a valuable tool for biosensing applications. Expressed protein ligation and protein trans-splicing were used to generate proteins with necessary tags or cyclic peptides that can be used to build various biosensing platforms such as biochips or sensor proteins. Especially the use of split-inteins that carry out conditional protein splicing reaction enabled the fabrication of various genetically-encoded biosensors that can monitor various signaling events in vivo including protein-protein interactions and protein translocalization. Biological targets activated split-inteins to generate functioning reporter molecules, such as luciferase and autofluorescent proteins. We here review various sensing platforms that utilize intein-mediated protein engineering technology mainly focusing on cell-based biosensors.