Sequence analysis of functional Apisimin-2 cDNA from royal jelly of Chinese honeybee and its expression in Escherichia coli.

Apisimin is one of the functional peptides from royal jelly. The aim of this study was to analyze and in vitro express a new gene encoding Acc-apisimin-2 from Chinese honeybee (Apis cerana cerana) in Escherichia coli. Ninety-six clones containing apisimin expressed sequence tag (EST) were identified from 8568 effective ESTs of the cDNA library of Chinese honeybee worker heads. The coding region of the matured peptide from one clone containing Acc-apisimin-2 gene was sub-cloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pGEX-4T-2. The recombinant vector then was transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3) for expression. The expression product was analyzed with SDS-PAGE and Western blot. The total length of the Acc-apisimin-2 cDNA was 379 bp, containing an open-reading frame (ORF) of 237 nucleotides encoding a 78 amino acid residue precursor. The Acc-apisimin-2 gene shared 100% homologies with Am-apisimin from A. mellifera, but 93% and 91% homologies with Aciapisimin from A. cerana indica and the previously reported Acc-apisimin-1 sequence (AY278991) on a nucleotide level, respectively. The GST-Acc-apisimin-2 fusion protein expressed in the recombinant vector was about 31 kDa in size and accumulated up to about 22.1% of the total bacterial proteins. About 50% of the recombinant protein was soluble. The fusion protein purified through affinity chromatography was cross reactive with GST antibody, which confirmed the successful expression of GST-Acc-apisimin-2.