Production and purification of a novel antibiotic peptide, adenoregulin, from a recombinant Escherichia coli

Adenoregulin is a member of dermaseptin family which are vertebrate antibiotic peptides having lethal effects against a broad spectrum of bacteria, fungi and protozoa. The 99 bp adenoregulin gene was cloned in the expression vector pET32a and transformed into Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). In fed-batch cultivation of BL21(DE3)/pET32a-adr, an exponential feeding strategy was applied to gain 60 g dry cells l(-1). The recombinant fusion protein Trx-ADR was expressed in a soluble form. The fusion protein was isolated by Ni2+-chelating chromatography, cleaved with CNBr and purified to homogeneity through reverse phase-HPLC and size exclusion-HPLC. The purified recombinant adenoregulin had antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli K12D31 with apparent Mr of 3.4 kDa, identical to the anticipated value.