Recombinant expression and purification of "virus-like" bacterial encapsulin protein cages

• Published in: Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) Vol. 1252; p. 61
• Main Authors: Rurup, W Frederik, Cornelissen, Jeroen J L M, Koay, Melissa S T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-01-2015
• Subjects: Bacterial Proteins - chemistry; Bacterial Proteins - isolation & purification; Brevibacterium - chemistry; Nanotechnology; Recombinant Proteins; Thermotoga maritima - chemistry
• ISSN: 1940-6029
• DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-2131-7_6

Ultracentrifugation, particularly the use of sucrose or cesium chloride density gradients, is a highly reliable and efficient technique for the purification of virus-like particles and protein cages. Since virus-like particles and protein cages have a unique size compared to cellular macromolecules and organelles, the rate of migration can be used as a tool for purification. Here we describe a detailed protocol for the purification of recently discovered virus-like assemblies called bacterial encapsulins from Thermotoga maritima and Brevibacterium linens.