Preparation of luciferase-bacterial magnetic particle complex by artificial integration of MagA-luciferase fusion protein into the bacterial magnetic particle membrane.

MagA is an iron-translocating protein found in the membranes of magnetic bacterium. Luciferase-bacterial magnetic particle (BMP) complexes were prepared by artificially inserting MagA-luciferase fusion proteins into the membranes of BMPs from Magnetospirillum magneticum strain AMB-1. Fusion proteins were from recombinant Escherichia coli membranes. MagA-Luc fusion proteins were integrated by sonication in vitro. Successful integration of fusion proteins was confirmed by luciferase luminescence on BMPs. Maximum luminescence was obtained after sonication for 3 min with a solution containing 300 mM NaCl, and is 18 times higher compared with recombinant Luc-BMPs generated using previously reported gene fusion techniques. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 77: 614-618, 2002; DOI 10.1002/bit.10114