Overexpression and Purification of the Recombinant Ca²⁺-Binding Protein, Apoaequorin

Abstract

The small, monomeric Ca²⁺-binding photoprotein, aequorin, emits blue light by an intramolecular reaction when mixed with Ca²⁺. The photoprotein is made up of coelenter-azine and molecular oxygen, bound noncovalently to apoaequorin (apoprotein). The chemical steps leading to light emission, involving the oxidative degradation of coelenter-azine, have been studied extensively, but little is known about the active site and how the molecule catalyzes the oxidation of coelenterazine. The three-dimensional structure of the protein has not been determined and therefore answers to these questions have remained unavailable. The present paper describes a procedure for preparing fairly large amounts of apoaequorin and aequorin for X-ray crystallographic studies. It consists of fusing the apoaequorin cDNA to the signal peptide coding sequence of the outer membrane protein A of Escherichia coli, which is under the control of the lipoprotein promoter. When the cDNA was expressed in E. coli, a large excess of the recombinant protein was produced and released into the culture medium. Purification of the protein was accomplished by acid precipitation and DEAE-cellulose chromatography. The procedure yielded 7.4 mg of recombinant apoaequorin with a purity greater than 95% from 200 ml of culture medium. On regeneration with coelenterazine, the recombinant aequorin was fully active with Ca²⁺.