Multiprotein expression strategy for structural biology of eukaryotic complexes.

The concept of the cell as a collection of multisubunit protein machines is emerging as a cornerstone of modern biology, and molecular-level study of these machines in most cases will require recombinant production. Here, we present and validate a strategy to rapidly produce, permutate, and posttranslationally modify large, eukaryotic multiprotein complexes by using DNA recombination in a process that is fully automatable. Parallel production of 12 protein complex variants within a period of weeks resulted in specimens of sufficient quantity and homogeneity for structural biology applications.