Heterologous expression and purification of dermaseptin S4 fusion in Escherichia coli and recovery of biological activity.

Heterologous expression of dermaseptin S4 (DS4), which has cytolytic activity in vitro against a broad spectrum of pathogenic microorganisms, was examined in Escherichia coli. The plasmid pGEX-4T-1, encoding DS4 fused with glutathione S-transferase (GST), was constructed and cloned into the E. coli strain BL21 (DE3). The fusion protein was overexpressed in this strain after induction with isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) and purified to homogeneity using GST affinity chromatography. To recover biologically active DS4, the purified fusion protein was cleaved using thrombin protease; the liberated DS4 was shown to be bactericidally active against an indicator strain. Since it is less expensive to obtain such a peptide biologically, in this study, we report for the first time a method to express purify DS4 in E. coli using a GST fusion system.