Chemical stabilization of the phycocyanin from cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis

• Published in: Journal of biotechnology 2006-02, Vol.121 (4), p.563-569
• Main Authors: Sun, Li, Wang, Shumei, Qiao, Zhiyong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bacterial Proteins - chemistry; Bacterial Proteins - isolation & purification; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Chromatography, Ion Exchange - methods; Cyanobacteria - chemistry; Cyanobacterium; Cyanophyta; Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer - methods; Fluorescent Probe; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Phycocyanin; Phycocyanin - chemistry; Phycocyanin - isolation & purification; Phycoerythrin; Phycoerythrin - chemistry; Spirulina platensis
• ISSN: 0168-1656; 1873-4863
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2005.08.017

Phycocyanin (PC) prepared from a cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis by the DEAE-DE52 cellulose column chromatography that was developed by gradient elution of 50–250 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) was stabilized by its subunits cross-linked covalently with formaldehyde. The single blue band that the chemically stabilized PC showed in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) demonstrated that the stabilized PC still maintained its trimeric aggregate form even after its incubation at 60 °C for 3 h and at 100 °C for 10 min in the denatured buffer containing 5% (w/v) SDS. Moreover, the stabilized PC exhibited similar spectroscopic properties of absorption and fluorescence to those of the native PC, and showed adequate energy coupling with R-phycoerythrin (R-PE) after it was conjugated with R-PE via glutaraldehyde.