High-level expression, purification, and characterization of non-tagged Aspergillus flavus urate oxidase in Escherichia coli

Protein Expr Purif. 2006 Sep;49(1):55-9. doi: 10.1016/j.pep.2006.02.003. Epub 2006 Mar 2.

Abstract

The entire encoding region for Aspergillus flavus uricase was cloned into pET-32a and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The uricase was expressed in the E. coli cytoplasm in a completely soluble, biologically active form. A scalable process aimed to produce and purify multi-gram quantities of highly pure, recombinant urate oxidase (rUox) from E. coli was developed. The rUox protein was produced in a 30 L fermentor containing 25 L of 2x YT medium and purified to >99% purity using hydrophobic interaction, anion-exchange, and gel filtered chromatography. The final yield of purified rUox from fermentation resulted in approximately 27 g of highly pure, biologically active rUox per kg of cell paste (approximately 238 mg/8.8 g cell paste/L). The results presented here exhibit the ability to generate multi-gram quantities of rUox from E. coli that may be used for the development of pharmaceutics of reducing the hyperuricemia.

MeSH terms

  • Aspergillus flavus / enzymology*
  • Aspergillus flavus / genetics
  • Catalysis
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Escherichia coli / genetics
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism*
  • Gene Expression*
  • Genetic Vectors / genetics
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Proteins / isolation & purification
  • Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
  • Urate Oxidase / genetics
  • Urate Oxidase / isolation & purification*
  • Urate Oxidase / metabolism*

Substances

  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Urate Oxidase