title: Purification and partial characterization by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry of the recombinant transposase, TniA.
abstract: A recombinant transposase, TniA, a basic DNA binding protein, was chromatographically purified and characterized by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) methods. Escherichia coli cells, overexpressing native TniA, were ultrasonically disrupted and the clarified supernatant was used as starting material for anion-exchange chromatography on SOURCE1 15Q 4.6/100 PE (Tricorn), at pH 7.5. This initial step was proven to be a fast and simple way of removing acidic proteins like proteases. TniA was collected from the flow-through fraction and applied onto HiTrap heparin HP 5 ml in order to capture the basic TniA. This was followed by cation-exchange chromatography through Mono S 5/50 GL (Tricorn), at pH 6.5 which resulted in a purity of TniA of about 95%. The molecular mass of TniA was determined to 62 869 rel. mol. mass units with MALDI-TOF-MS and the identity of the protein was confirmed by peptide mass fingerprinting of trypsin-digested TniA. Partial amino acid sequencing was achieved after derivatization of tryptic peptides using Ettan CAF MALDI Sequencing Kit and post source decay. The fact that transposases are DNA-binding and that many of them possess basic isoelectric point values suggest that the outlined purification protocol may serve as a general method for the purification of recombinant nontagged transposases and other basic DNA-binding proteins.
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002846:Chromatography, Affinity; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D019895:Transposases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D019895:Transposases