High-level Soluble Expression and One-step Purification of HTLV-I P19 Protein in Escherichia coli by Fusion Expression

Expression of HTLV-I p19 protein in an Escherichia coli expression system always leads to the formation of inclusion body. Solubilisation and refolding of the inclusion bodies is complex, time consuming and difficult during large-scale preparation. This study aimed to express and purify a soluble form of recombinant HTLV-I p19 protein in an E. coli expression system. The synthetic DNA encoding the p19 was subcloned into a pGS21a vector along with a His-GST solubility/purification tag. The recombinant pGS21a-p19 vector was then transformed into chemically competent E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells, and expression of the recombinant His-GST-p19 protein was induced by IPTG. Expression and distribution of the His-GST-p19 protein in soluble and insoluble fractions were evaluated using SDS-PAGE. Antigenicity of the His-GST-p19 protein was evaluated using ELISA after purifying the protein using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography, then compared to the results of synthetic immunodominant p19 peptide ELISA. The fusion His-GST-p19 protein accounted for 30% of the total cellular proteins. The SDS-PAGE results indicated that approximately 50% of the expressed His-GST-p19 proteins were soluble and accounted for 50% of the total soluble proteins. ELISA showed that the His-GST tag did not impair the antigenicity of the p19 protein and that the fusion protein reacted with HTLV-I antibodies in a concentration-dependent manner. The results of His-GST-p19 ELISA indicated that specificity of p19 reactivity was compatible to the results of p19 peptide ELISA. Combination of key strategies for the soluble expression of proteins, like fusion with solubility/purification tags, low IPTG concentration and induction at low temperature, provide an efficient and facile platform for producing soluble HTLV-I p19 protein.