Membrane-Bound Protein Scaffolding in Diverse Hosts Using Thylakoid Protein CURT1A

Protein scaffolding is a useful strategy for controlling the spatial arrangement of cellular components via protein–protein interactions. Protein scaffolding has primarily been used to colocalize soluble proteins in the cytoplasm, but many proteins require membrane association for proper function. Scaffolding at select membrane domains would provide an additional level of control over the distribution of proteins within a cell and could aid in exploiting numerous metabolic pathways that contain membrane-associated enzymes. We developed and characterized a membrane-bound protein scaffolding module based on the thylakoid protein CURT1A. This scaffolding module forms homo-oligomers in the membrane, causing proteins fused to CURT1A to cluster together at membrane surfaces. It is functional in diverse expression hosts and can scaffold proteins at thylakoid membranes in chloroplasts, endoplasmic reticulum in higher plants and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the inner membrane of Escherichia coli.