Virulence gene profiling of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli heat-stable enterotoxin 1-harboring E. coli (EAST1EC) derived from sporadic diarrheal patients

Between 2007 and 2009, a total of 2168 Escherichia coli strains derived from diarrheal patients, defined as putative diarrheagenic E. coli (DEC), were collected from medical institutions in Akita prefecture, Japan. Thirty five of the strains lacked typical pathogenic determinants of DEC other than astA, which encodes enteroaggregative E. coli (EAggEC) heat-stable enterotoxin 1 (EAST1). These E. coli strains are referred to as EAST1EC. Several studies have suggested a role of EAST1 in diarrhea; however, the correlation between diarrhea and the presence of astA remains inconclusive. To investigate whether EAST1EC strains derived from diarrheal patients shared pathogenic factors other than EAST1, virulence gene profiling of 12 virulence genes - iha, lpfA, ldaG, pilS, pic, pet, irp2, daa, aah, aid, cdtB and hlyA - was carried out. PCR analysis revealed that four of the 35 EAST1EC strains harbored only astA, 24 harbored genes associated with adhesins and intestinal colonization, three strains harbored the gene for α-hemolysin, and 24 strains harbored the gene for a siderophore. These results indicated that some EAST1EC strains harbor various virulence genes associated with distinct E. coli pathotypes, primarily enterohemorrhagic E. coli and EAggEC, which may represent additional pathogenic determinants of EAST1EC.     

Expression of antihypertensive peptide, His-His-Leu, as tandem repeats in Escherichia coli

His-His-Leu (HHL), a tripeptide derived from a Korean soybean paste, is an angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. We report here a method of producing this tripeptide efficiently by expressing tandem multimers of the codons encoding the peptide in E. coli and purifying the HHL after hydrolysis of the peptide multiners. The HHL gene, tandemly multimerized to a 40-mer, was ligated with ubiquitin as a fusion gene (UH40). UH40 was inserted into vector pET29b; the UH40 fusion protein was then produced in E. coli BL21. The recombinant UH40 protein was purified by cation-exchange chromatography with a yield of 17.3 mg/l and analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry and protein N-terminal sequencing. Leucine aminopeptidase was used to cleave a 405-Da HHL monomer from the UH40 fusion protein and the peptide was purified using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a C18 HPLC column, with a final yield of 6.2 mg/l. The resulting peptide was confirmed to be HHL with the aid of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, glutamine-TOF mass spectrometry, N-terminal sequencing, and measurement of ACE inhibiting activity. These results suggest that our production method is useful for obtaining a large quantity of recombinant HHL for functional antihypertensive peptide studies.     

HIV—1 P24截短体与gp41截短体的融合蛋白在大肠杆菌中的表达、纯化和鉴定

用基因重组技术将截短的HIV－1 p24基因和gp41基因连接成嵌合基因,插入质粒pGEX-4T3,构建成重组表达质粒pGEX-F。将pGEX-F转化大肠杆菌BL21。经IPTG诱导表达,pGEX-F在大肠杆菌BL21中获得了高效表达。融合蛋白P24－gp41经Glutathione-Sepharose4B亲和层析纯化后,用间接ELISA和免疫印迹检测HIV抗体阳性血清和正常人血清,P24－gp41只与HIV抗体阳性血清反应,证明获得的融合蛋白P24－gp41有很强的抗原特异性和免疫反应性,具有较高的应用价值。     

CpTI蛋白在大肠杆菌中的高效融合表达及其纯化与活性测定

豇豆胰蛋白酶抑制剂 (Cowpea Trypsin Inhibitor) 基因 (CpTI) 因其抗虫谱广及不易耐受等优点在植物基因工程中得到广泛应用。为进行遗传修饰食品（Genetically modified foods, GMF）中所含CpTI基因表达产物的安全性评价,我们需要在体外微生物体系中获得大量的CpTI蛋白。采用pGEX融合蛋白表达系统,将CpTI与GST的编码序列在大肠杆菌BL21中进行融合表达,表达产物达到菌体总蛋白的40%。经一步Glutathione Sephrose 4B亲和纯化,融合蛋白GSTCpTI纯度达到90％以上。将Thrombin蛋白酶与融合蛋白过夜作用,可获得切掉了GST标签的CpTI蛋白。活性测定显示GSTCpTI及CpTI蛋白均具有明显的胰蛋白酶抑制剂活性。用纯化的融合蛋白免疫家兔还可诱导产生高效价的抗体,经ELISA检测抗体滴度>1∶20000。Western Blotting 实验显示,无论是菌体超声裂解后总蛋白中的CpTI蛋白或是经纯化后的CpTI蛋白均可与自制的抗体发生特异性结合。这为进一步进行CpTI蛋白的安全性评价工作奠定了良好基础。     

酸弗林蛋白酶酸性氨基酸簇分选蛋白-1的原核表达、纯化及多克隆抗体制备

目的：原核表达和纯化PACS-1,并制备其多克隆抗体。方法：通过RT-PCR扩增出PACS-1的编码基因,测序正确后克隆入原核表达载体pGEX4T-1,转化大肠杆菌BL21（DE3）,以IPTG诱导PACS-1与GST融合蛋白的表达并经Glutathione Sepharose 4B纯化;经SDS-PAGE和Western blot鉴定,应用纯化的蛋白免疫家兔制备多克隆抗体,用ELISA测定抗体的效价。结果：表达和纯化了PACS-1,并获得了较高效价的抗血清。结论：获得纯化的PACS-1及其多克隆抗体,为进一步研究PACS-1的功能奠定了基础。     

High-level expression of the recombinant hybrid peptide cecropinA(1-8)-magainin2(1-12) with an ubiquitin fusion partner in Escherichia coli

The hybrid antibacterial peptide CA-MA [cecropinA(1-8)-magainin2(1-12)] with potent antimicrobial properties but no hemolytic activity is a potential alternative antibiotic. To explore a new approach for high-level expression of the hybrid peptide CA-MA in Escherichia coli, the sequence of ubiquitin (UBI) from housefly was inserted into the plasmid pQE30 to construct the vector pQEUBI. The cDNA fragment encoding CA-MA with preferred codons of E. coli was obtained by recursive PCR (rPCR) and cloned into the vector pQEUBI to express the fusion protein (His)(6)-UBI-CA-MA. The fusion protein was expressed in soluble form under the optimized conditions at high level (more than 36% of the total proteins). With (His)(6)-tag, the fusion protein was easily purified by Ni-NTA chromatography and 36 mg of fusion protein was purified from 1L of culture medium. The fusion protein was efficiently cleaved by ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase (UCH), yielding recombinant CA-MA with high antimicrobial activity. After removing the contaminants by Ni-NTA chromatography, recombinant CA-MA was purified to homogeneity by reversed-phase HPLC and 6.8mg of pure active CA-MA was obtained from 1L culture medium. Analysis of recombinant CA-MA by MALDI-TOF-MS showed that the molecular weight of the purified recombinant CA-MA was 2559Da, which perfectly matches the mass (2559Da) calculated from the amino acid sequence. Analysis of CA-MA by circular dichroism (CD) revealed that the secondary structures of CA-MA in water solution were 17.4% alpha-helix and 82.6% random coil but no beta-sheet. Our results demonstrated that functional CA-MA can be produced in sufficient quantities using the ubiquitin fusion technique. This is the first report on the heterologous expression of a hybrid antibacterial peptide fused to ubiquitin in E. coli.     

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.     

Expression, purification, and characterization of the recombinant kringle 1 domain from tissue-type plasminogen activator.

A novel fusion protein expression plasmid that allows ready purification and subsequent facile release of the target molecule has been constructed and employed to express in Escherichia coli and purify the tissue plasminogen activator kringle 1 domain ([K1tPA] residues C92-C173). The resulting plasmid encodes the tight lysine-binding kringle (K)1 domain of human plasminogen ([K1HPg]) followed by a peptide (PfXa) containing a factor Xa-sensitive bond, downstream of which [K1tPA] was inserted. The recombinant (r) [K1HPg]PfXa[K1tPA] fusion polypeptide was purified from various cell fractions in one step by Sepharose-lysine affinity chromatography. After cleavage with fXa, the mixture was repassaged over Sepharose-lysine, whereupon the r-[K1tPA]-containing polypeptide passed unretarded through the column. A homogeneous preparation of this material was then obtained after a simple step employing fast protein liquid chromatography. The purified r-[K1tPA], which contained the amino acid sequence SNAS[K1tPA]S, provided an amino-terminal amino acid sequence, through at least 20 amino acid residues, that was identical to that predicted from the cDNA sequence. The molecular mass of r-SNAS[K1tPA]S, determined by electrospray mass spectrometry, was 9621.9 +/- 4.0 (expected molecular mass, 9623.65). 1H-NMR spectroscopy and thermal stability studies of r-SNAS[K1tPA]S revealed that the purified material was properly folded and similar to other isolated kringle domains. Additionally, employment of this methodology revealed that only a very weak interaction between epsilon-aminocaproic acid and the isolated r-[K1tPA] domain occurred.     

Expression and purification of a recombinant LL-37 from Escherichia coli

Human cathelicidin-derived LL-37 is a 37-residue cationic, amphipathic alpha-helical peptide. It is an active component of mammalian innate immunity. LL-37 has several biological functions including a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities and LPS-neutralizing activity. In order to determine the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of LL-37 using NMR spectroscopy, it is important to obtain the peptide with isotopic labels such as (15)N, (13)C and/or (2)H. Since it is less expensive to obtain such a peptide biologically, in this study, we report for the first time a method to express in E. coli and purify LL-37 using Glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion system. LL-37 gene was inserted into vector pGEX-4T3 and expressed as a GST-LL-37 fusion protein in BL21(DE3) strain. The recombinant GST-LL-37 protein was purified with a yield of 8 mg/l by affinity chromatography and analyzed its biochemical and spectroscopic properties. Factor Xa was used to cleave a 4.5-kDa LL-37 from the GST-LL-37 fusion protein and the peptide was purified using a reverse-phase HPLC on a Vydac C(18) column with a final yield of 0.3 mg/l. The protein purified using reverse-phase HPLC was confirmed to be LL-37 by the analyses of Western blot and MALDI-TOF-Mass spectrometry. E. coli cells harboring the expression vector pGEX-4T3-LL-37 were grown in the presence of the (15)N-labeled M9 minimal medium and culture conditions were optimized to obtain uniform (15)N enrichment in the constitutively expressed LL-37 peptide. These results suggest that our production method will be useful in obtaining a large quantity of recombinant LL-37 peptide for NMR studies.     

Prevalence of HEp-2 cell-adherent Escherichia coli and characterisation of enteroaggregative E. coli and chain-like adherent E. coli isolated from children with and without diarrhoea, in Londrina, Brazil

A total of 919 Escherichia coli isolates from 125 children with diarrhoea (cases) and 98 controls were assayed for adherence to HEp-2 cells. Localised adherence was found only in isolates from cases. Diffuse, aggregative (AA), chain-like adherence (CLA) and variants of the AA pattern were found in both cases and controls. The AA isolates were tested for gene sequences associated with enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC). Only 25% of the isolates hybridised with the EAEC probe, and the aafA, astA and pet gene sequences were found in 7.9%, 44.7% and 7.9% of the isolates, respectively. The aggA gene was not found, although 7.9% were positive for aggC. The CLA isolates reacted with the EAEC probe (55.6%), and the aggC, astA and pet gene sequences were found in 66.7%, 33.3% and 11.1%, respectively. The aggR (55.6%), aspU (55.6%), shf (33.3%) and she (22.2%) genes were also found in CLA isolates.     

人小肠三叶因子缺失半胱氨酸57突变体的构建及其生物活性

用 PCR方法构建了一个不能形成二聚体的 C端缺失半胱氨酸 57的 h ITF突变体 .将其克隆到大肠杆菌表达载体 p GEX- 4T- 1中 ,ITPG诱导表达 ,融合蛋白经 Glutathione- Sepharose 4B亲和层析 ,凝血酶酶切和 Sephacryl S 1 0 0纯化 ,得到突变体蛋白 .SDS- PAGE,氨基酸组成 ,飞行质谱 ,N端氨基酸序列测定结果与期望值一致 .研究表明突变体的生物学活性有所降低 .对胃蛋白酶作用的稳定性降低 .     

人乳头瘤病毒16型E7蛋白的原核表达与鉴定

本研究在大肠杆菌BL21中融合表达人乳头瘤病毒16型E7蛋白,并初步评价其应用价值。采用PCR技术扩增出HPV16E7基因,将其克隆进原核表达载体pGEX6p-1,转化至大肠杆菌BL21,利用IPTG进行诱导表达。以纯化的融合蛋白作为检测抗原建立间接ELISA方法,用于检测重组李斯特菌(Lm1-2-E7)免疫小鼠后的E7血清抗体水平。在25℃,0.5mM IPTG诱导下,HPV16E7蛋白在大肠杆菌BL21中获得表达,融合蛋白以可溶性形式存在,Western blot结果显示其与HPV16E7单克隆抗体发生特异性反应。二次免疫后小鼠血清经间接ELISA结果表明E7特异性抗体滴度为1∶200。结果表明GST-E7融合蛋白具有较强的免疫活性。     

大鼠丝氨酸或半胱氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂B2的表达、纯化及抗体制备

目的:原核表达、纯化大鼠丝氨酸或半胱氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂B2(SERPINB2),并制备其多克隆抗体.方法:设计扩增大鼠Serpinb2全长基因的特异引物,通过PCR扩增出该基因片段,测序正确后插入含GST基因的原核表达载体pGEX-KG中,以IPTG诱导表达,并经谷胱甘肽琼脂糖珠纯化融合蛋白;用纯化的蛋白免疫小鼠制备多克...     

DNA损伤检查点蛋白调节子1片段的表达纯化及抗体制备

目的：原核表达、纯化DNA损伤检查点蛋白调节子1（MDC1）片段,并制备其多克隆抗体。方法：设计特异引物,通过RT-PCR扩增编码MDC1 N端194个氨基酸残基的基因片段,测序正确后插入含GST基因的原核表达载体pGEX-KG中,以IPTG诱导表达,并经谷胱甘肽琼脂糖珠纯化融合蛋白;用纯化的蛋白免疫小鼠制备多克隆抗体,用ELISA测定抗体的效价,Western印迹鉴定抗体的特异性。结果：原核表达并纯化了MDC1 N端片段,并获得了抗MDC1的多克隆抗体,抗体效价达到1∶12800,Western印迹显示该抗血清能特异识别原核及真核细胞表达的MDC1。结论：MDC1 N端片段能够诱导小鼠产生具有较高效价和特异性的多克隆抗体,为进一步研究MDC1在Fhit特异信号通路中的作用奠定了基础。     

融和蛋白GST-SUMO-MT在大肠杆菌中的表达、纯化及其活性研究

将编码融合蛋白GST-SUMO-MT的DNA片段连接到大肠杆菌表达载体pET-28a中,构建重组表达质粒pET-GS-MT并转化到大肠杆菌Origami（DE3）中。20℃,1mM的IPTG诱导20h后,获得分子量约为43Kd的融合蛋白,表达量占菌体上清总蛋白的38.4％。利用谷胱甘肽交联琼脂糖（Glutathione Sepharose 4B）凝胶柱和Sephardex G-25分子筛联用可以得到纯度为95%以上的融合蛋白,得率约为70mg/L。该融合蛋白可与GST抗体产生阳性反应。融合蛋白GST-SUMO-MT可以显著提高宿主对Cd2+、Zn2+和Cu2+离子聚积的能力,其耐受能力比对照组分别提高4.2倍、4倍及1.6倍。此外,原子吸收光谱法测定,每分子GST-SUMO-MT可以结合2-3个Cd2+离子。     

Biologically active and C-amidated hinnavinII-38-Asn produced from a Trx fusion construct in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis>

The cabbage butterfly (Artogeia rapae) antimicrobial peptide hinnavinII as a member of cecropin family is synthesized as 37 residues in size with an amidated lysine at C-terminus and shows the humoral immune response to a bacterial invasion. In this work, a synthetic gene for hinnavinII-38-Asn (HIN) with an additional amino acid asparagine residue containing amide group at C-terminus was cloned into pET-32a(+) vector to allow expression of HIN as a Trx fusion protein in Escherichia coli strain BL21 (DE3) pLysS. The resulting expression level of the fusion protein Trx-HIN could reach 15–20% of the total cell proteins and more than 70% of the target proteins were in soluble form. The fusion protein could be purified successfully by HiTrap Chelating HP column and a high yield of 15 mg purified fusion protein was obtained from 80 ml E. coli culture. Recombinant HIN was readily obtained by enterokinase cleavage of the fusion protein followed by FPLC chromatography, and 3.18 mg pure active recombinant HIN was obtained from 80 ml culture. The molecular mass of recombinant HIN determined by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer is 4252.084 Da which matches the theoretical mass (4252.0 Da) of HIN. Comparing the antimicrobial activities of the recombinant hinnavinII with C-amidated terminus to that without an amidated C-terminus, we found that the amide of asparagine at C-terminus of hinnavinII improved its potency on certain microorganism such as E. coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Bacillus megaterium, and Staphylococcus aureus.     

抗菌肽PekⅡ基因在大肠杆菌中的融合表达及初步纯化

目的：研究抗菌肽PekⅡ基因在大肠杆菌中的融合表达并初步纯化。方法：根据大肠杆菌密码子的偏好性,人工设计并合成2段核苷酸序列,退火获得PekⅡ基因;将此基因克隆到原核表达载体pGEX-4T-2中,构建成抗菌肽基因PekⅡ融合表达载体pGEX-PekⅡ,转化至大肠杆菌BL21中,用IPTG进行诱导。取超声破碎后的上清经Glutathione SepharoseTM4亲和层析得到纯化融合蛋白。结果：PCR和测序表明已获得正确PekⅡ编码基因,SDS-PAGE显示29kD处有特异性的蛋白条带出现,纯化得到的GST-PekⅡ经MALDI-TOFMS分析得出其相对分子质量为29553．03。结论：抗菌肽PekⅡ基因在大肠杆菌中的融合表达获得成功,初步纯化得到纯品。     

p16抑癌基因定点突变及其在大肠杆菌中的表达与纯化

为了研究错义突变对ｐ１６功能的影响,应用ＰＣＲ体外定点突变方法对ｐ１６ｃＤＮＡ进行体外定点突变,并将野生型和突变型ｐ１６ｃＤＮＡ克隆于ｐＧＥＸ－５Ｔ载体,在大肠杆菌中经ＩＰＴＧ诱导表达,Ｗｅｓｔｅｒｎ印迹鉴定确证表达．而后用谷胱甘肽－Ｓｅｐｈａｒｏｓｅ４Ｂ亲和层析纯化野生型和突变型ｐ１６融合蛋白．得到了第４８位密码子ＣＣＧ（Ｐｒｏ）→ＣＴＧ（Ｌｅｕ）突变的ｐ１６－Ｐ４８突变体,并在大肠杆菌中表达了４２ｋＤ的ＧＳＴ－ｐ１６和ＧＳＴ－ｐ１６Ｐ４８Ｌ融合蛋白．最后经纯化得到了野生和Ｐ４８Ｌ突变的ｐ１６融合蛋白     

EoRab43参与游仆虫细胞内大核周围的物质运输

Rab家族蛋白是真核细胞内膜泡运输途径中重要的调节因子。EoRab43是八肋游仆虫中一种编码非典型Rab蛋白的基因。本研究依据已获得的EoRab43基因序列设计引物．从八肋游仆虫大核DNA中扩增了EoRab43基因的3’端153bp片段,即EoRab43 153bp（对应于EoRab43蛋白的C末端50个氨基酸,EoRab43C）,构建重组表达质粒pGEX—EoRab43,53bp转化大肠杆菌BL21（DE3）进行表达．纯化后的融合蛋白GST—EoRab43C免疫BALB／c小鼠制备多克隆抗体。经检测,制备的抗体具有较高的效价及良好的特异性。利用制备的抗体对EoRab43在游仆虫细胞内进行免疫荧光定位．结果显示该蛋白主要定位于该生物细胞内大核染色体的周围。