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The Tat pathway as a biotechnological tool for the expression and export of heterologous proteins in Escherichia coli

Kelly L Walker, Alexander S Jones and Colin Robinson*

Approximately 30% of all currently licensed, recombinantly expressed biotherapeutic products are produced in Escherichia coli, among which a significant proportion are exported to the periplasm by the general Secretory ‘Sec’ pathway. However, this pathway cannot handle many target proteins and the Tat pathway is emerging as a powerful alternative means of export. The Tat system exports fully folded proteins, moreover it preferentially exports correctly folded proteins and has been shown to export a range of biotherapeutics. This review will discuss our current understanding of the Tat pathway and its potential application for the industrial-scale production of biotherapeutics.