Aegerolysin protein family comprises small (13-20 kDa) and mostly β-structured proteins that are present in organisms from different kingdoms (bacteria, eukaryotes). Some aegerolysins interact with membranes and when complexed with a protein partner exhibit pore-forming abilities. In bacteria, egerolysin and its protein partner are encoded on an operon and this bacterial egerolysin complexes exert insecticidal characteristics. The genome of a soil bacterium Spirosoma linguale carries such an operon encompassing an aegerolysin and a putative protein partner genes. The aim of this master theses was to isolate recombinant S. linguale aegerolysin and its protein partner and to characterize the interaction between the two proteins and the interaction of the proteins with the lipid membrane. We successfully constructed recombinant plasmids containing both genes, for the aegerolysin SlinAg and for its putative protein partner SlinB, however we managed to purify only the aegerolysin protein. We characterized the SlinAg protein by circular dichroism spectroscopy which showed that SlinAg is composed of mainly β-strands, which is typical characteristic of aegerolysins. Since we could not isolate SlinB we were not able to assay if the two proteins form a complex on the membrane.
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