Expression and purification of recombinant <i>Lactobacillus casei</i> bacteriocin and analysis of its antibacterial activity

Abstract

Diseases caused by foodborne pathogens have largely promoted the search for natural biopreservatives. We constructed recombinant plasmids pGEX-4 T-1-lacA, pGEX-4 T-1-lacB, and pGEX-4 T-1-lacAB, harboring genes for bacteriocins lactocin (Lac) A, B, and AB, respectively, with protein expression achieved in Escherichia coli BL21 cells. LacAB was purified using a glutathione S-transferase (GST) protein purification kit, and the GST tag was removed using thrombin for a maximum concentration yield of 1.85 mg/mL. LacAB and the combination of LacA and LacB showed better antimicrobial activity than LacA or LacB alone. The antibacterial activity assay indicated that purified LacAB has broad-spectrum and significant antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923, with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 125 μg/mL. This study is the first, to our knowledge, to demonstrate the antimicrobial activity of LacAB; moreover, it provides an efficient strategy for the production of bacteriocin LacAB, which could be a food preservative candidate.