Expression and protease characterization of a conserved protein YgjD in Vibrio harveyi

Bacteria strains and plasmids

The main bacteria strains and plasmids are listed in Table 1. The V. harveyi strain SF-1 was isolated from diseased sea perch (Lateolabrax japonicus) in Qingdao, P. R. China (He, Chen & Li, 2011; Wang et al., 2002), and confirmed by 16S rDNA sequence analysis (Accession Number: SUB6973071). The V. harveyi cells were cultured on Zobell’s 2216 E medium at 30 °C. E. coil cells were cultured on Luria-Bertani (LB) medium at 37 °C. All chemical reagents were analytical grade.

Cloning and bioinformatics analysis of ygjD gene of V. harveyi

A pair of primers (forward primer 5′-AATTTTAATCCGATCAAC-3′, reverse primer 5′-TATTTCAAACCTTCAGTAGA-3′) was designed according to the ygjD gene of V. harveyi and other Vibrio spp. on NCBI database (http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). The ygjD gene was amplified by PCR from chromosomal DNA of V. harveyi strain SF-1. The reaction conditions were as follows: denaturation at 94 °C for 5 min, 30 cycles of denaturation at 94 °C for 60 s, annealing at 42 °C for 1 min, extension at 72 °C for 1.5 min, and a final extension at 72 °C for 10 min. The PCR products were checked by 1.0% agarose gel eletrophoresis and further purified using a DNA purification Kit (Tiangen, Beijing, China). The gene was cloned into PEASY-T1 vector (TransGEN, Beijing, China) and sequenced by Sangon Biotech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., China. The ygjD gene sequence was subjected to similarity alignment analysis on the NCBI. The gene similarities were analyzed with DNAMAN software (version 5.1; Lynnon Biosoft, Quebec, Canada). A phylogenic tree was constructed using MEGA 5.0 by the neighbor joining method with 1,000 replicates.

Expression and purification of the recombinant YgjD

The ygjD gene was amplified by PCR from the PEASY-T1-ygjD with a pair of primers (forward primer 5′-GGAGTCTAGAATGCGCATTATTGGTA-3′ with Xba I restriction site, reverse primer 5′-CGAATGCGGTTAGCGCGAGCTCCGGC-3′ with Xho I restriction site). The PCR products were also detected with the same method above described. The amplified sequence was inserted into pET-28a (+). The recombinant pET-28a (+)-ygjD was then transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). The E. coli containing pET-28a (+)-ygjD was inoculated into 5 mL of LB liquid medium containing kanamycin (0.05 mg/mL), and cultured overnight at 37 °C with shaking. The culture was then added to 500 mL of the same medium and kept at 37 °C for further 3 h, and then induced with isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) at 37 °C for 4 h. The bacteria cells were then collected by centrifugation at 10,000 g for 15 min at 4 °C. The cell pellet was resuspended in 20 mL of lysate (pH 8.0, 20 mM Tris-HCl) containing phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) and protease inhibitor, sonicated (work 4 sec, interval 8 sec, 20 min total) at 400 W by Ultrasonic Processor (SCIENTZ-950E; Ningbo Xinzhi Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Ningbo, China) in an ice bath. The lysate was centrifuged at 9,000 g for 20 min at 4 °C and the precipitate was collected. The inclusion bodies were washed 3 times with inclusion body washing solution (20 mM Tris, 1 mM ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), 2 mM Urea, 1 M NaCl, 1% Triton X-100, pH 8.0), and then were dissolved in a certain ratio with a lysis buffer (20 mM Tris, 5 mM dithiothreitol, 8 mM Urea, pH 8.0). Centrifuged at 15,000 g for 15 min and the inclusion bodies were filtered through a 0.22 µm sterile filter (Millipore, USA). The recombinant protein was purified using a Ni²⁺ affinity chromatography as described (Mukhija & Erni, 1996). The inclusion bodies solutions were loaded into the pre-equilibrium Ni-ID Sepharose CL-6B column, and eluted with Ni-IDA Binding-Buffer at 1.0 mL/min until the absorbance at 280 nm achieved the stable baseline. The targeted protein was eluted with Ni-IDA Elution-Buffer and collected for determining the concentration of protein by Bradford assay (Bradford, 1976). The purified protein was dialyzed with deionized water for analysis by 12% SDS-PAGE (Laemmli, 1970), and protease activity determination.

Construction, expression and purification of the YgjD mutants

The ygjD gene of V. harvey i strain SF-1 was analyzed and compared with the other bacteria. The amino acids of the conserved “HXEXH” sequence of the proteases were selected and replaced with other amino acids (Table 2). These mutant gene sequences were synthesized by General Biosystems (Anhui) Co., Ltd., China. The expressing plasmids pET-28a (+) containing mutated ygjD gene was constructed and transformed to E. coli BL21 (DE3). The recombinant YgjD mutants were expressed by IPTG induction and purified with the abovementioned methods.

Protein electrophoresis and Western blotting

The purified proteins were detected with western blot method (Das et al., 2018). The purified proteins were cut off acrylamide gels (SDS-PAGE) and transferred on the nitrocellulose membrane after electrophoresis. The membrane was then incubated with rabbit anti-6 ×His tag antibody (Genscript, Nanjing, China) at 37 °C for 2 h. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin (BoShiDe Biotechnology, Wuhan, China) was used as the secondary antibody. The hybrid membrane was washed with TBST buffer (pH 7.4), and detection was carried out with the ECL Western Blotting Detection kit (SW2010, Solarbio, Beijing).

Proteolytic activity determination of the purified YgjD

Amidase activity was determined with BAPNA substrate (Erlanger, Kokowsky & Cohen, 1961). Briefly, 0.1 mL of protein solution were mixed with 0.5 mL of BAPNA solution (1 mmol/L), incubated at 37 °C for 30 min, and added 30 µL of 30% acetic acid solution to stop the reaction. The optical densities were detected at a wavelength of 410 nm and the activity was calculated (Erlanger, Kokowsky & Cohen, 1961). 50 µL of protein solution were added into 0.7 mL of ATEE solution (1 mmol/L) or BTEE solution (1 mmol/L), and incubated at 37 °C for 30 min. 30 µL of 30% acetic acid solution were used to stop the reaction. The absorbance at 256 nm were measured and the esterase activities were calculated as described (Hummel, 1959; Schwert & Takenaka, 1955).

Protease characterization of the recombinant YgjD under different conditions

According to the above described method, the esterase activity of the YgjD also was determined with ATEE substrate at various temperatures (4 °C, 20 °C, 30 °C, 40 °C, 50 °C, 60 °C, 70 °C, 80 °C). The optimal pH and pH stability of the enzyme activities were determined with Na₂HPO₄/C₆H₈O₇ buffer (pH 2.0–8.0) and Na₂HPO₄/KH₂PO₄ buffer (pH 8.0–10.0), respectively. To determine the effect of metal ions on enzyme activities of the recombinant YgjD, different amounts of Mn²⁺, Ca²⁺, Zn²⁺, Co²⁺, Mg²⁺ and Cu²⁺ were added to the mixtures of recombinant YgjD and ATEE solution at 37 °C for 30 min, and the protease activities were determined. Enzyme inhibitors such as DTT, PMSF, EDTA and ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid (EGTA) also were added into the mixtures of recombinant YgjD and ATEE solution at the same conditions, and then dialyzed with deionized water for the enzyme activities determination.

Effects of the recombinant YgjD proteins on the growth of V. harveyi strain SF-1

The V. harvey cells were cultured at 30 °C to reach stationary phase, and inoculated into 5 mL of 2216 E broth with addition of the purified wild-type and mutant YgjD proteins, respectively. The bacteria mixtures were then incubated at the same temperature for 72 h. The optical density of bacteria was determined at a wavelength of 600 nm, and the growth curve was drawn for evaluating the effects of the recombinant proteins on the growth of V. harveyi.

Recovery effect of the YgjD on VBNC cells of V. harveyi strain SF-1

The V. harveyi was cultured in 2216 E broth at 30 °C, 200 rpm overnight. 45 µL of H₂O₂ was added to the bacteria solution with a final concentration of 50 mM. The bacteria solution was kept at 30 °C. The viable counts were determined with plate counting method (Kogure, Simidu & Taga, 1979). The bacteria cells were considered to enter into the uncultivable state when the viable cells cannot be detected (Baffone et al., 2006).

5 mL of the VBNC cells were taken out from the VBNC cell microcosm of V. harveyi. The cells were collected with centrifugation. The collected cells were washed with sterile physiological saline. They were inoculated into 5 mL of sterile physiological saline. 500 µL of the purified YgjD (0.2 mg/mL) were added to 4.5 mL of the VBNC cells to determine its promoting effect on VBNC cells. A boiled protein solution was used as a control. The mixed solution was kept under the same condition. The culturable cell counts were determined by plate count method.

Statistical analysis

All the measurements were performed in three separate replicates. Statistical analysis of the mean of the results were performed with SPSS software (SPSS, Chicago, IL). The graphs were constructed using Origin 95 software (OriginLab Corp., USA).

Cloning and analysis of ygjD gene from V. harveyi strain SF-1

The ygjD gene of V. harveyi strain SF-1 was composed of 1,017 bp with a stop codon, which encoded a polypeptide of 338 amino acids. The sequence was submitted to NCBI, and an accession was obtained as MN699966. The phylogenic tree from 15 strains were established based on the ygjD gene (part segment) as shown in Fig. 1. Its nucleotide sequence showed 95% similarity with that of V. harveyi FDAARGOS 107. The nucleotide sequence similarities with V. cholerae, V. vulnificus, V. parahaemolyticus were 75%–83%, respectively. The gene also showed 68%, 67% and 50% similarities with the ygjDs of S. enterica, E. coli and B. cereus, respectively. According to the amino acid sequence alignment analysis, the amino acid sequence in this study showed 100% similarity with other V. harveyi strains. Meanwhile, the amino acid similarities with V. cholerae, V. vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus also reached 89%, 96% and 99%, respectively. However, the similarities with S. enterica, E. coli and B. cereus were 77%, 76% and 43%, respectively. Further it showed 31% similarity with eukaryotic organism S. cerevisiae. It was clear from the phylogenetic tree that the cloned ygjD gene was more conservative in Vibrio sp, and existed in many microorganisms. These results implied ygjD gene played an important roles in microbes survival (Zheng et al., 2007; Bergmiller et al., 2011).

Expression, purification and enzyme activity analysis of the recombinant YgjD

The ygjD gene was cloned into pET-28a (+) and the recombined plasmid transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3) for the expression of YgjD protein. The amount of expressed protein purified with Ni²⁺ affinity chromatography column reached at 3 mg. The molecular weight showed a 37 kDa band on SDS-PAGE, which corresponded to the molecular weight of fusion protein (Fig. 2B). The Western blotting also showed a 37 kDa specific band (Fig. 2C), further indicating the protein was correctly expressed and induced by IPTG.

The purified YgjD showed protease activities with ATEE, BTEE and BAPNA substrates, the specific activities were of 59,000 units/mg, 53,700 units/mg and 8100 units/mg, respectively. The protein showed maximum activity at 50 °C and pH 7.7 (Fig. 3). As shown in Table 3, Zn²⁺increased the protease activity of the YgjD. Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺, Ca²⁺ and Co²⁺ partly inhibited the enzyme activities. PMSF, EDTA and EGTA all had different degrees of inhibitory effect on the protease activity.

Mutation analysis of the enzyme active site of the YgjD

The amino acids of the conserved sequence “HXEXH” of the YgjD were separately substituted with alanine. The purified YgjD mutants showed specific bands of the same size with the wild-type protein on SDS-PAGE (Fig. 4). The protease activities of the YgjD mutant were decreased at different degrees (Table 4). When ATEE, BTEE, BAPNA was used as substrate, the protease activities of protein with a single amino acid mutation (H111A, E113A and H115A) decreased significantly. The protease activities with the H111A mutant nearly inactivated with BAPNA substrate, the protease activities with the E113A mutant also inactivated with BTEE substrate, the protease activities with the H115A mutant nearly inactivated with ATEE and BTEE substrates, while the YgjD mutant with His¹¹¹+His¹¹⁵(H111A+H115A) lost its activity completely. These results revealed that the two amino acid site (H111A+H115A) played the most important roles in maintaining its protease activity.

Effects of the purified YgjD on growth of V. harveyi strain SF-1

As shown in Fig. 5, the different growth curve of V. harveyi strain SF-1 were determined by addition of the purified YgjD at different concentrations (20 µg/mL and 10 µg/mL), the strain growth rate significantly increased with the concentration increase. And, the cell growth rate increased to 177.01% and 120.52%, respectively, when compared with the control group (20 µg/mL of the boiled YgjD) and normal group (without additive). It’s worth noting that the growth rate of strain SF-1 also increased to 111.56% in the group with the additive of mutant proteins (E113A). However, the growth rate showed no significant difference among mutant proteins (H115A) group, mutant proteins (H111A+ H115A) group, normal group and control group, which implied the YgjD mutant group with His¹¹¹+His¹¹⁵ lost its promoting effect on the cell growth. These results further demonstrated that the amino acid (His¹¹¹ and His¹¹⁵) played an key function in maintaining the structure and activity of YgjD, and the proteinase activity of YgjD involve in the cell division and cell autolysis (Zheng et al., 2007; Bergmiller et al., 2011).

Recovery effect of the recombinant YgjD on the VBNC cells of V. harveyi

The effects of recombinant YgjD on recovery of V. harveyi cells were also analyzed. No visible colonies were observed on the plates added with the purified YgjD protein, which suggested that the YgjD did not have obvious promoting effect on VBNC cells (Table 5).