Efficient production of active Vibrio proteolyticus aminopeptidase in Escherichia coli by co-expression with engineered vibriolysin

The Vibrio proteolyticus aminopeptidase is synthesized as a preproprotein and then converted into an active enzyme by cleavage of the N-terminal propeptide. In recombinant Escherichia coli, however, the aminopeptidase is not processed correctly and the less-active form that has the N-terminal propeptide accumulates in the culture medium. Recently, we isolated a novel vibriolysin that was expressed as an active form in E. coli by random mutagenesis; this enzyme shows potential as a candidate enzyme for the processing of aminopeptidase. The E. coli cells were engineered to co-express the novel vibriolysin along with aminopeptidase. Co-expression of vibriolysin resulted in an approximately 13-fold increase in aminopeptidase activity, and a further increase was observed in the form lacking its C-terminal propeptide. The active aminopeptidase was purified from the culture supernatant including the recombinant vibriolysin by heat treatment and ion exchange and hydroxyapatite chromatography with high purity and 35% recovery rate. This purified aminopeptidase effectively converted methionyl-human growth hormone (Met-hGH) to hGH. Thus, this co-expression system provides an efficient method for producing active recombinant V. proteolyticus aminopeptidase.