Objective: To express hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein gene fragment in E. coli.
Methods: A fragment of HCV core gene sequence 357 bp in length was amplified by PCR, digested with EcoRI+Hind III and inserted to the plasmid vector pET-32a to construct recombinant HCVc/pET-32a plasmid, which was transformed into E.coli BL-21 and induced by IPTG for its expression. The expressed proteins obtained were identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting.
Results: The core sequence of HCV was amplified and after IPTG induction, a fusion protein of 32,000 was resulted exhibiting specific reaction with HCV-positive serum and high antigenicity.
Conclusion: It is possible to efficiently express HCV core protein in E.coli.