Construction of a lactococcal expression vector: expression of hen egg white lysozyme in Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis.

A pair of vectors for expression of heterologous genes in Lactococcus lactis was constructed. In addition to an origin of replication that has a broad host range, these vectors contain a multiple cloning site flanked by gene expression signals originating from L. lactis subsp. cremoris Wg2. The two vectors, about 3.7 kilobase pairs in size, differ only in the type of antibiotic resistance they confer to their hosts. pMG36 carries a kanamycin resistance marker, which was replaced by an erythromycin resistance marker in pMG36e. As an example of the use of these vectors, the hen egg white lysozyme-coding sequence was inserted. A fusion protein of the expected size was detected in a transformed L. lactis subsp. lactis strain by using Western blotting (immunoblotting).