Ovchinnikov KV, Oftedal TF, Reich SJ, Bar NS, Holo H, Skaugen M, Riedel CU, Diep DB. Genome-assisted Identification, Purification, and Characterization of Bacteriocins.
Bio Protoc 2022;
12:e4477. [PMID:
35978579 PMCID:
PMC9350922 DOI:
10.21769/bioprotoc.4477]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Revised: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides with activity against antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens. Here, we describe a set of methods aimed at purifying, identifying, and characterizing new bacteriocins. The purification consists of ammonium sulphate precipitation, cation-exchange chromatography, and reversed-phase chromatography. The yield of the bacteriocin is quantified by bacteriocin antimicrobial activity in a microtiter plate assay after each purification step. The mass of the purified bacteriocin is assessed by MALDI TOF MS analysis of the active fractions after reversed-phase chromatography. The mass is compared with the theoretical mass based on genetic information from the whole genome sequencing of the bacteriocin producer strain. Physicochemical characterization is performed by assessing antimicrobial activity following heat and protease treatments. Fluorescent techniques are used to examine the capacity of the bacteriocin to disrupt membrane integrity. Herein a set of protocols for purification and characterization of the bacteriocin nisin Z is used as a typical example in this paper.
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