Overproduction and purification of the Mycoplasma capricolum phosphocarrier protein, HPr, of the phosphoenolpyruvate: sugar phosphotransferase system.

The gene (ptsH) for the phosphocarrier protein, HPr, of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system from Mycoplasma capricolum was previously cloned and sequenced. We present here the results of experiments in which the ptsH gene was cloned into a vector for high level expression in Escherichia coli of the phosphocarrier protein. Conditions were developed for overproduction and purification of HPr by a two-column procedure. The purified protein, analyzed by Edman degradation and mass spectrometry, was found to have been processed by removal of the N-terminal methionine residue. Examination of the purified protein by gel electrophoresis under isoelectric focusing conditions revealed that it has an unusually high isoelectric point.