Functional expression,purification, and antimicrobial activity of a novel antimicrobial peptide MLH in Escherichia coli

In this study, a novel heterozygous antimicrobial peptide MLH was synthesized, expressed, purified, and characterized. The peptide Md-cec-LL-37_Hp (MLH) was selected through bioinformatic analysis using musca domestica antimicrobial peptide (Cec-Med), human antimicrobial peptide LL-37, and helicobacter pylori antimicrobial peptide (Hp) as parent peptides. The target gene was synthesized by overlap extension PCR (SOE-PCR) and connected to the expression vector pET-32a (+), and the recombinant plasmid pET-32a-MLH was transformed to Escherichia coli for constructing pET-32a-MLH/BL21 (DE3). Isopropyl β-D-thiogalactoside (IPTG) was used to induce protein expression, and SDS-PAGE and western blot were adopted to test the target protein. And fermentation condition was optimized to get the mass expression of the fusion protein. The Ni²⁺ affinity chromatographic column was used to purify. Active heterozygous peptide was obtained after renaturation. Finally, the activity of the heterozygous antimicrobial peptide was identified. The fusion peptide showed significant antimicrobial effect on both E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.     

Recombinant production of antimicrobial peptides in Escherichia coli: a review

Antimicrobial peptides are of great interest due to their potential application as novel antibiotics. Large quantities of highly purified peptides are required to meet the needs of basic research and clinical trials. Compared with isolation from natural sources and chemical synthesis, recombinant approach offers the most cost-effective means for large-scale peptide manufacture. Among the systems available for heterologous protein production, Escherichia coli has been the most widely used host. Antimicrobial peptides produced in E. coli are often expressed as fusion proteins, a strategy necessary to mask these peptides' lethal effect towards the host and protect them from proteolytic degradation. The present article reviews commonly used fusion partners (e.g., solubility-enhancing, aggregation-promoting and self-cleavable carriers, etc.), cleavage methods and optimization options for antimicrobial peptides production in E. coli. In addition, the various approaches developed to generate recombinant human antimicrobial peptide LL-37, which offer excellent examples demonstrating effective production strategies, were briefly discussed.     

Expression and purification of human antimicrobial peptide, dermcidin, in Escherichia coli

Human dermcidin, an anionic antimicrobial peptide expressed in the pons of the brain and the sweat glands, displays antimicrobial activity against pathogenic microorganisms such as Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans. Here, we describe the recombinant production of a 48 amino acid dermcidin variant with C-terminal homoserine lactone (DCD-1Hsl). Dermcidin coding sequence was cloned downstream of a 125 amino acid ketosteroid isomerase gene and upstream of a His6Tag sequence in pET-31b(+) vector and transformed into Escherichia coli. The fusion protein was expressed in the form of inclusion bodies, purified on His Bind Resin, and cleaved by CNBr to release recombinant DCD-1Hsl. Purification of rDCD-1Hsl was achieved by solid-phase extraction that yielded milligram amounts of peptide with more than 95% purity. Recombinant peptide showed antimicrobial activities against E. coli ML-35p, Salmonella typhimurium 5156, Listeria monocytogenes 264, S. aureus 29/58 (clinical isolate), and C. albicans K2 (clinical strain). The application of this expression/purification approach represents a fast and efficient method to prepare milligram quantities of dermcidin in its biologically active form.     

Expression and purification of antimicrobial peptide adenoregulin with C-amidated terminus in Escherichia coli

Adenoregulin is a 33 amino acid antimicrobial peptide isolated from the skin of the arboreal frog Phyllomedusa bicolor. Natural adenoregulin is synthesized with an amidated valine residue at C-terminus and shows lethal effects against filamentous fungi, as well as a broad spectrum of pathogenic microorganisms. A synthetic gene for adenoregulin (ADR) with an additional amino acid glutamine at C-terminus was cloned into pET32a vector to allow expression of ADR as a Trx fusion protein in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). The resulting expression level of the fusion protein could reach up to 20% of the total cell proteins. The fusion protein could be purified effectively by Ni2+-chelating chromatography. Released from the fusion protein by enterokinase cleavage and purified to homogeneity, the recombinant ADR displayed antimicrobial activity similar to that of the synthetic ADR reported earlier. Comparing the antimicrobial activities of the recombinant adenoregulin with C-amidated terminus to that without an amidated C-terminus, we found that the amide of glutamine at C-terminus of ADR improved its potency on certain microorganisms such as Tritirachium album and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.     

Recombinant expression, purification, and antimicrobial activity of a novel hybrid antimicrobial peptide LFT33

With great therapeutic potential against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, viruses, and even parasites, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have received increased interest as pharmaceutical agents in recent years. It is a worthy yet challenging work to carry out the implement and improvement of AMPs production using bioengineering techniques. In the present study, a novel hybrid peptide LFT33 was designed derived from LfcinB and thanatin. The cDNA fragment encoding LFT33 with preferred codons of Escherichia coli was chemically synthesized and ligated into the vector pET32a(+) to express the LFT33 fusion protein. The fusion protein was successfully expressed in soluble form in E. coli induced under optimized conditions. After purification by affinity chromatography, the fusion protein was cleaved successfully by enterokinase and released the peptide LFT33. About 0.5?mg of the recombinant LFT33 was obtained by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography from 1?l of culture medium. Mass spectrometry analysis of the purified recombinant LFT33 demonstrated that the molecular weight perfectly matched the calculated mass (4,195?Da). The recombinant peptide LFT33 caused an increase in antimicrobial activity (IC(50)?=?16-64?μg/ml) against given strains and did not show hemolytic activity for human erythrocytes. The results indicated that the hybrid peptide LFT33 could serve as a promising candidate for pharmaceutical agents.     

新型抗菌肽Perinerin在大肠杆菌中的融合表达

为了获得新型抗菌肽 perinerin在大肠杆菌中的高效和可溶表达,实验首先采用SOE 法(重叠 PCR 法)获得的 perinerin 基因序列,对目的基因密码子优化,然后将其连接到 pET32a 载体中获得重组表达载体 pET32a-PEN,通过改变诱导时间和温度、诱导剂 IPTG 浓度以及诱变工程菌株等条件和方法,观察重组蛋白的表达效果,并运用金属螯合层析对融合蛋白进行纯化.SDS-PAGE 显示重组菌诱导后表达的融合蛋白分子量约为 26kD,采用变异重组菌株 MUT 3诱导表达,在 2×YT 培养基培养条件下,30 ℃诱导4 h 可获得高效表达的 perinerin 融合蛋白,其表达量约占菌体总蛋白的 50 % 左右,重组蛋白主要以可溶性表达形式存在,可溶性产物最高可达重组蛋白总表达量的 60 %.融合蛋白运用金属螯合层析一步纯化,纯度可达 90 % 以上.     

Design and production of a novel antimicrobial fusion protein in Escherichia coli

In recent years, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have attracted increasing attention. The microbial cells provide a simple, cost-effective platform to produce AMPs in industrial quantities. While AMP production as fusion proteins in microorganisms is commonly used, the recovery of AMPs necessitates the use of expensive proteases and extra purification steps. Here, we develop a novel fusion protein DAMP4-F-pexiganan comprising a carrier protein DAMP4 linked to the AMP, pexiganan, through a long, flexible linker. We show that this fusion protein can be purified using a non-chromatography approach and exhibits the same antimicrobial activity as the chemically synthesized pexiganan peptide without any cleavage step. Activity of the fusion protein is dependent on a long, flexible linker between the AMP and carrier domains, as well as on the expression conditions of the fusion protein, with low-temperature expression promoting better folding of the AMP domain. The production of DAMP4-F-pexiganan circumvents the time-consuming and costly steps of chromatography-based purification and enzymatic cleavages, therefore shows considerable advantages over traditional microbial production of AMPs. We expect this novel fusion protein, and the studies on the effect of linker and expression conditions on its antimicrobial activity, will broaden the rational design and production of antimicrobial products based on AMPs.

     

一种新的DyP-type过氧化物酶在大肠杆菌中的重组表达、纯化及鉴定

染料脱色过氧化物酶(DyP-type过氧化物酶)是含有亚铁血红素,能降解各种有毒染料的一类蛋白.为了研究运动发酵单胞菌Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 (ATCC 31821)中一种新的DyP-type过氧化物酶的特点和功能,以Z.mobilis基因组DNA为模板,通过PCR扩增目的基因,克隆到大肠杆菌表达载体pET-21b(+)中.通过ZmDyP与其他DyP-type过氧化物酶的比对,发现它们存在着共同保守氨基酸D149、R239、T254、F256和GXXDG结构基序,说明ZmDyP是Dyp-type过氧化物酶家族的一个新成员.经IPTG诱导大肠杆菌中pET21 b(+)-ZmDyP表达,并将表达的酶进行金属螯合层析纯化.SDS-PAGE分析表明,纯酶分子量为36 kDa,而活性染色显示分子量为108 kDa,表明该酶在活性状态下可能是一个三聚体.光谱扫描显示ZmDyP有一个典型的亚铁血红素吸收峰,说明它是含有亚铁血红素的蛋白.对ZmDyP性质进行了研究,发现以2,2-二氨-双(3-乙基苯并噻唑-6-磺酸)ABTS为底物,ZmDyP表现出更高的转化效率.这些研究结果丰富了DyP-type 过氧化物酶家族信息,并且为ZmDyP的结构功能和反应机制研究奠定了基础.     

Recombinant protein production in Escherichia coli

Growing needs for efficient recombinant production pose new challenges; starting from cell growth optimization under overexpression conditions, improving vectors, gene and protein sequence to suit them to protein biosynthesis machinery of the host, through extending the knowledge of protein folding, fusion protein construction, and coexpression systems, to improvements in protein purification and renaturation technologies. Hitherto Escherichia coli is the most defined and the cheapest protein biosynthesis system. With its wealth of available mutants tested is the best suited to economically test new gene constructs and to scale up the recombinant protein production.     

A simple method for the purification of an antimicrobial peptide in recombinant Escherichia coli

A magainin derivative, designated MSI-344, was produced in Escherichia coli as fusion protein, by utilizing a truncated amidophsphoribosyltransferase of E. coli as a fusion partner. Bacterial cells transformed with the gene encoding the fusion protein were grown to a high cell density and induced with isopropyl-1-thio-b-D-galatoside (IPTG) to initiate product expression. The fusion protein was accumulated into cytoplasmic inclusion body and recombinant MSI-344 was released from the fusion partner by hydroxylamine treatment. Following cleavage of the fusion protein with hydroxylamine, the released MSI-344 was purified to homogeneity by cationic exchange chromatography. The final purity was at least 95% by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Purified recombinant MSI-344 was found to be indistinguishable from the synthetic peptide determined by amino acid sequences and antimicrobial activity assay.     

Microcin 25, a novel antimicrobial peptide produced by Escherichia coli.

Microcin 25, a peptide antibiotic excreted by an Escherichia coli strain isolated from human feces, was purified to homogeneity and characterized. Composition analysis and data from gel filtration indicated that microcin 25 may contain 20 amino acid residues. It has a blocked amino-terminal end. Microcin synthesis and immunity are plasmid determined, and the antibiotic was produced in minimal medium when the cultures entered the stationary phase of growth. The peptide appears to interfere with cell division, since susceptible cells filamented when exposed to it. This response does not seem to be mediated by the SOS system.     

Recombinant expression of bioactive peptide lunasin in Escherichia coli

Lunasin, a cancer-preventive peptide, was isolated from soybean, barley, and wheat. Previous studies showed that this 43-amino acid peptide has the ability to suppress chemical carcinogen-induced transformation in mammalian cells and skin carcinogenesis in mice. In this study, we attempted to use the Escherichia coli T7 expression system for expression of lunasin. The lunasin gene was synthesized by overlapping extension polymerase chain reaction and expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) with the use of vector pET29a. The recombinant lunasin containing his-tag at the C-terminus was expressed in soluble form which could be purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography. After 4 h, the expression level is above 4.73 mg of recombinant his-tagged lunasin/L of Luria–Bertani broth. It does not affect the bacterial growth and expression levels. This is the first study that successfully uses E. coli as a host to produce valuable bioactive lunasin. The result of in vitro bioassay showed that the purified recombinant lunasin can inhibit histone acetylation. Recombinant lunasin also inhibits the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, and nitric oxide production). Compared with other research methods on extraction or chemical synthesis to produce lunasin, our method is very efficient in saving time and cost. In the future, it could be applied in medicine and structure–function determination.     

Recombinant production of cathelicidin-derived antimicrobial peptides in Escherichia coli using an inducible autocleaving enzyme tag

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), such as the linear amphipathic cathelicidins, are produced widely in the natural world and are active against a broad range of pathogenic microorganisms. Their potential as a new range of antibiotics has prompted numerous studies of AMP structure and function. Most such studies are performed with chemically synthesised peptides, but a simple and rapid biosynthetic route would offer a more cost-effective alternative for the production of AMPs and analysis of their structure/function relationships. The cysteine protease domain (CPD) from Vibrio cholerae MARTX toxin possesses an autocleaving ability that is inducible by inositol hexakisphosphate (IP(6)). When coupled with a hexa-histidine tag and fused to the C-terminus of an AMP, this AMP-CPD fusion may be expressed in Escherichia coli and purified using immobilized metal affinity chromatography. A brief on-column induction of cleavage liberates the AMP, and subsequent polishing using hydrophobic interaction resin allows for purification of the peptide within a day. We used this system to express and purify several 18-residue cathelicidin variants and tested their activity on E. coli, Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus subtilis and Candida albicans. This approach to linear AMP production may aid rapid construction and purification of structural variants for subsequent functional analysis.     

Facilitation of expression and purification of an antimicrobial peptide by fusion with baculoviral polyhedrin in Escherichia coli

Several fusion strategies have been developed for the expression and purification of small antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in recombinant bacterial expression systems. However, some of these efforts have been limited by product toxicity to host cells, product proteolysis, low expression levels, poor recovery yields, and sometimes an absence of posttranslational modifications required for biological activity. For the present work, we investigated the use of the baculoviral polyhedrin (Polh) protein as a novel fusion partner for the production of a model AMP (halocidin 18-amino-acid subunit; Hal18) in Escherichia coli. The useful solubility properties of Polh as a fusion partner facilitated the expression of the Polh-Hal18 fusion protein ( approximately 33.6 kDa) by forming insoluble inclusion bodies in E. coli which could easily be purified by inclusion body isolation and affinity purification using the fused hexahistidine tag. The recombinant Hal18 AMP ( approximately 2 kDa) could then be cleaved with hydroxylamine from the fusion protein and easily recovered by simple dialysis and centrifugation. This was facilitated by the fact that Polh was soluble during the alkaline cleavage reaction but became insoluble during dialysis at a neutral pH. Reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography was used to further purify the separated recombinant Hal18, giving a final yield of 30% with >90% purity. Importantly, recombinant and synthetic Hal18 peptides showed nearly identical antimicrobial activities against E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, which were used as representative gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, respectively. These results demonstrate that baculoviral Polh can provide an efficient and facile platform for the production or functional study of target AMPs.     

鸡源抗菌肽Fowlicidin-2在大肠杆菌中的 重组表达及其生物学活性鉴定

【目的】对抗菌肽Fowlicidin-2基因进行克隆与表达,并鉴定其生物学活性。【方法】根据抗菌肽Fowlicidin-2氨基酸序列,依照大肠杆菌(E.coli)密码子的偏爱性,人工设计合成其编码基因。与质粒pET-32a连接,构建重组表达载体,转化表达宿主菌E.coliBL21(DE3),IPTG诱导表达,融合蛋白经溴化氰裂解后进行纯化,测定重组抗菌肽的抑菌活性。【结果】Fowlicidin-2融合蛋白以包涵体形式表达,经溴化氰裂解后,成功释放出Fowlicidin-2,获得的重组Fowlicidin-2对革兰氏阳性菌和革兰氏阴性菌均有明显的抑菌效果。【结论】实现了抗菌肽Fowlicidin-2的重组表达,为抗菌肽的重组量化制备提供了理论基础与技术手段。     

Recombinant expression and purification of the antimicrobial peptide magainin‐2

Magainin‐2 (MAG2) is a polycationic antimicrobial peptide isolated from the skin of the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis. It has a wide spectrum of antimicrobial activities against gram‐positive and gram‐negative bacteria, fungi, and induces osmotic lysis of protozoa. MAG2 also possesses antiviral and antitumoral properties. These activities make this peptide a promising candidate for therapeutic applications. Recombinant expression systems are necessary for the affordable production of large amounts of the biologically active peptide. In this work, MAG2 has been cloned to the N‐terminal of a family III carbohydrate‐binding module fused to the linker sequence (LK‐CBM3) from Clostridium thermocellum; a formic acid recognition site was introduced between the two modules for chemical cleavage of the peptide. The recombinant protein MAG2‐LK‐CBM3 was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) and MAG2 was successfully cleaved and purified from the fusion partner LK‐CBM3. Its functionality was confirmed by testing its activity against gram‐negative bacteria. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2013     

Optimization of BLyS production and purification from Escherichia coli

B lymphocyte stimulator (BLyS) is a member of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily of cytokines. When the 152 amino acids of the C-terminus are associated into a homotrimer, this protein exhibits the ability to stimulate B cell proliferation and differentiation. Since numerous potential therapeutic indications have been identified for BLyS and other BLyS-derived products, large quantities of the protein are needed to further basic research and clinical trials. In this work, we have developed a high yield recombinant expression system that utilizes Escherichia coli as the host organism. Recombinant soluble BLyS (rsBLyS) production was achieved through the use of the phoA promoter system. This expression system, coupled to a semi-defined fermentation process, resulted in final purified yields of 435 mg/L of properly folded, trimeric, biologically active rsBLyS. This level of production is an 11-fold increase in volumetric yields compared to the process currently being used for clinical production. Furthermore, the increased rsBLyS production obtained from this process enabled the development of a conventional purification scheme that eliminated the use of a BLyS-affinity resin.     

Purification and characterization of a plant antimicrobial peptide expressed in Escherichia coli

MiAMP1 is a low-molecular-weight, cysteine-rich, antimicrobial peptide isolated from the nut kernel of Macadamia integrifolia. A DNA sequence encoding MiAMP1 with an additional ATG start codon was cloned into a modified pET vector under the control of the T7 RNA polymerase promoter. The pET vector was cotransformed together with the vector pSB161, which expresses a rare arginine tRNA. The peptide was readily isolated in high yield from the insoluble fraction of the Escherichia coli extract. The purified peptide was shown to have an identical molecular weight to the native peptide by mass spectroscopy indicating that the N-terminal methionine had been cleaved. Analysis by NMR spectroscopy indicated that the refolded recombinant peptide had a similar overall three-dimensional structure to that of the native peptide. The peptide inhibited the growth of phytopathogenic fungi in vitro in a similar manner to the native peptide. To our knowledge, MiAMP1 is the first antimicrobial peptide from plants to be functionally expressed in E. coli. This will permit a detailed structure-function analysis of the peptide and studies of its mode of action on phytopathogens.     

Recombinant protein production in an Escherichia coli reduced genome strain

Recently, efforts have been made to improve the properties of Escherichia coli as a recombinant host by 'genomic surgery'-deleting large segments of the E. coli K12 MG1655 genome without scars. These excised segments included K-islands, which contain a high proportion of transposons, insertion sequences, cryptic phage, damaged, and unknown-function genes. The resulting multiple-deletion strain, designated E. coli MDS40, has a 14% (about 700 genes) smaller genome than the parent strain, E. coli MG1655. The multiple-deletion and parent E. coli strains were cultured in fed-batch fermenters to high cell densities on minimal medium to simulate industrial conditions for evaluating growth and recombinant protein production characteristics. Recombinant protein production and by-product levels were quantified at different controlled growth rates. These results indicate that the multiple-deletion strain's growth behavior and recombinant protein productivity closely matched the parent stain. Thus, the multiple-deletion strain E. coli MDS40 provides a suitable foundation for further genomic reduction.     

Recombinant Escherichia coli cell for d-p-hydroxyphenylglycine production from d-N-carbamoyl-p-hydroxyphenylglycine

Recombinant Escherichia coli cell containing D-amidohydrolase was employed to convert D-N-carbamoyl-p-hydroxyphenylglycine (D-CpHPG) to D-p-hydroxyphenylglycine (D-pHPG). Biotransformations under pH 7 and 40 degrees C allowed to complete conversion of D-CpHPG into D-pHPG. Under the same reaction pH, the D-amidohydrolase activity of the cell in the phosphate buffer was higher than that in the Tris buffer. The activity decreased with the increase of phosphate buffer concentration. Instead of using buffer, the reaction pH maintained constant at 7 by titrating with 1 N HCl resulted in a higher D-pHPG production rate. Flocculating the cell suspension with chitosan and cross-linked by glutaraldehyde made the cell recovery for repeated use much easier. Both the cross-linking and (PMSF; a protease inhibitor) treatments could increase the cell reusability and storage stability. However, the cross-linking decreased the D-amidohydrolase activity of the cell to about 50%. The D-amidohydrolase activities of free and cross-linked cell were inhibited at substrate concentration higher than 150 mM and 100 mM, respectively. The conversion of 150 mM D-CpHPG to D-pHPG could be completed within 7 h for the free cell at the concentration of 10% (wet weight/volume).