Purification and Properties of Escherichia coli-Corynebacterium nephridii Hybrid Thioredoxin

In earlier studies, the genes encoding Escherichia coli thioredoxin and Corynebacterium nephridii thioredoxin C-3 were fused via a common restriction site in the nucleotide sequence coding for the active site of the proteins to generate two chimeric thioredoxins, designated E-C3 (N to C-terminal) and C3-E. The hybrid thioredoxins were overexpressed in E. coli from the cloned chimeric thioredoxin genes by a T7 promoter/polymerase system. To investigate the structure-function relationship of thioredoxin, we purified the E-C3 hybrid thioredoxin through ammonium sulfate fractionation, DEAE-cellulose chromatography, and Sephadex G-50 gel filtration. Its purity was examined on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and the molecular weight of the purified E-C3 hybrid thioredoxin was estimated to be 12,000. On native polyacrylamide gels, the purified E-C3 hybrid thioredoxin shows a much lower mobility than E. coli thioredoxin. E-C3 hybrid thioredoxin exhibits a 40-fold lower catalytic efficiency with E. coli thioredoxin reductase than E. coli thioredoxin. It was shown to catalyze the reduction of insulin disulfide by dithiothreitol. The purified E-C3 hybrid thioredoxin was also characterized in other aspects.