DLP4 (defensin-like peptide 4) is a novel insect defensin, which has strong antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria and is not susceptible to develop drug resistance. In this study, an elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) and an intein fusion system were used for production and purification of DLP4, which combined the characteristics of the phase transition of ELP and the C-cleavage of the intein. A recombinant expression plasmid pET-ELP-I-DLP4 was constructed and transformed into Escherichia coli. Subsequently, DLP4 was purified by simple centrifugation, alternation of pH and temperature. However, the C-cleavage of the intein occurred unexpectedly during the process of expression and purification. To solve this problem, the intein was split into N-intein (I0N) and C-intein (I0C), and fused with ELP or DLP4 to construct two recombinant expression plasmids pET-ELP-I0N and pET-ELP-I0C-DLP4, respectively. These two plasmids were transformed into E. coli separately. The mixture of the two cultures of E. coli strains restored the C-cleavage activity of the intein. This operation yielded DLP4 of about 1.49 mg/L. Antibacterial test confirmed that the purified DLP4 exhibited expected activity. Thus, this approach can be used as an effective way for DLP4 expression and purification in the prokaryotic system.
姜宇,李秀,林瑛. 利用ELP-Intein系统在大肠杆菌中生产抗菌肽DLP4[J]. Chinese Journal of Biotechnology, 2022, 38(6): 2365-2376
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