Abstract
Human calcitonin (hCT) is a C-terminus α-amidated peptide hormone consisting of 32 amino acids. The amidated structure is essential for its biological activities, and the C-terminal-glycine-extended precursor peptide, hCT[G], is converted to bioactive hCT by a C-terminus-α-amidating enzyme. An efficient production method is described for the hCT[G] peptide, as a part of the fusion protein consisting of a modified E. coli β-galactosidase, linker amino acids and hCT[G]. Stable inclusion bodies of the fusion protein in E. coli were expressed by focusing on the amino acid charge, and the fusion protein was modified by inserting a basic amino acid sequence into its linker region. This modification greatly affected the formation of inclusion bodies. E. coli strain W3110/pG97S4DhCT [G]R4 could produce a large amount of stable inclusion bodies, and the hCT[G] peptide was released quantitatively from the fusion protein by S. aureus V8 protease. This enabled a large-scale production method to be established for the hCT[G] precursor peptide in E. coli to produce mature hCT.
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Yabuta, M., Suzuki, Y. & Ohsuye, K. High expression of a recombinant human calcitonin precursor peptide in Escherichia coli . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 42, 703–708 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00171948
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00171948