Higher efficiency soluble prokaryotic expression, purification, and structural analysis of antimicrobial peptide G13

G13 is a 19-residue cationic antimicrobial peptide derived from granulysin. In order to achieve high-level expression of G13 in Escherichia coli cells, and to reduce downstream processing costs, we introduced an Asp-Pro acid labile bond between the His-Patch thioredoxin and G13 and constructed the recombinant plasmid pThiohisA-DP-G13. The plasmid was transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). After induction with isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside for 5 h, the fusion protein accumulated up to 200 mg/L in soluble form. The fusion protein was released by a high pressure homogenizer, cleaved using 13% acetic acid at 50 °C hydrolysis for 72 h. The recombinant G13 (r-G13) was then successively purified by fractional precipitation with ammonium sulfate and trichloroacetic acid, followed by one-step cation exchange chromatography. The purified r-G13 displayed a single band (about 2.2 kDa) as analyzed by Tris-Tricine buffered SDS-PAGE, and its precise molecular weight was confirmed using tandem mass spectrometry. Analysis of r-G13 by circular dichroism (CD) indicated that r-G13 contained predominantly β-sheet and random coil. Agar plate diffusion assay revealed that the r-G13 exhibited antibacterial activity against both Bacillus subtilis and E. coli.