Synthesis of Recombinant Human Hemoglobin With NH₂-Terminal Acetylation in Escherichia coli

The development of new technologies for the efficient expression of recombinant hemoglobin (rHb) is of interest for experimental studies of protein biochemistry and the development of cell-free blood substitutes in transfusion medicine. Expression of rHb in Escherichia coli host cells has numerous advantages, but one disadvantage of using prokaryotic systems to express eukaryotic proteins is that they are incapable of performing post-translational modifications such as NH₂-terminal acetylation. One possible solution is to coexpress additional enzymes that can perform the necessary modifications in the host cells. Here, we report a new method for synthesizing human rHb with proper NH₂-terminal acetylation. Mass spectrometry experiments involving native and recombinant human Hb confirmed the efficacy of the new technique in producing correctly acetylated globin chains. Finally, functional experiments provided insights into the effects of NH₂-terminal acetylation on O₂ binding properties.