Escherichia coli-based cell extract is a vital component of inexpensive and high-yielding cell-free protein synthesis reactions. However, effective preparation of E. coli cell extract is limited to high-pressure (French press-style or impinge-style) or bead mill homogenizers, which all require a significant capital investment. Here we report the viability of E. coli cell extract prepared using equipment that is both common to biotechnology laboratories and able to process small volume samples. Specifically, we assessed the low-capital-cost lysis techniques of: (i) sonication, (ii) bead vortex mixing, (iii) freeze-thaw cycling, and (iv) lysozyme incubation to prepare E. coli cell extract for cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS). We also used simple shake flask fermentations with a commercially available E. coli strain. In addition, RNA polymerase was overexpressed in the E. coli cells prior to lysis, thus eliminating the need to add independently purified RNA polymerase to the CFPS reaction. As a result, high-yielding E. coli-based extract was prepared using equipment requiring a reduced capital investment and common to biotechnology laboratories. To our knowledge, this is the first successful prokaryote-based CFPS reaction to be carried out with extract prepared by sonication or bead vortex mixing.

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) is a versatile tool for rapid recombinant protein production and engineering. One drawback of cell-free technology is the necessity to store the major components—cell extracts and energy...