Antioxidant properties of recombinant allophycocyanin expressed in Escherichia coli

Allophycocyanin (APC) is the main core component of phycobilisome found in blue–green algae. The apo-allophycocyanin and its subunits were expressed in Escherichia coli and their antioxidant properties were evaluated using deoxyribose assay. The result showed that both recombinant allophycocyanin fused with maltose binding protein (MBP) tag and 6 × His-tag and their α or β subunits can scavenge hydroxyl radicals successfully, and the separated α or β subunits had a higher inhibition effect on hydroxyl radicals than that when they combined together. The scavenging effects increased with the increasing concentration. These results clearly suggested that apo-allophycocyanin is involved in the antioxidant and radical scavenging activity of phycocyanin, and the antioxidant activity may be partially responsible to the anti-tumor effect of the recombinant allophycocyanin.