Protein expression
The TeNT and decoy proteins were expressed individually in E. coli BL21(DE3) pLys S, using a customised high-optical density expression protocol (adapted from (Studier, 2005)). In brief, 100 nanograms of the corresponding vector was used to electrotransformE. coli BL21 (DE3) pLys S cells. The expression host was grown in liquid media with selection antibiotics then transferred to expression media where protein expression was induced by the addition of IPTG.