A novel bifunctional hybrid with marine bacterium alkaline phosphatase and Far Eastern holothurian mannan-binding lectin activities

A fusion between the genes encoding the marine bacterium Cobetia marina alkaline phosphatase (CmAP) and Far Eastern holothurian Apostichopus japonicus mannan-binding C-type lectin (MBL-AJ) was performed. Expression of the fusion gene in E. coli cells resulted in yield of soluble recombinant chimeric protein CmAP/MBL-AJ with the high alkaline phosphatase activity and specificity of the lectin MBL-AJ. The bifunctional hybrid CmAP/MBL-AJ was produced as a dimer with the molecular mass of 200 kDa. The CmAP/MBL-AJ dimer model showed the two-subunit lectin part that is associated with two molecules of alkaline phosphatase functioning independently from each other. The highly active CmAP label genetically linked to MBL-AJ has advantaged the lectin-binding assay in its sensitivity and time. The double substitution A156N/F159K in the lectin domain of CmAP/MBL-AJ has enhanced its lectin activity by 25 ± 5%. The bifunctional hybrid holothurian's lectin could be promising tool for developing non-invasive methods for biological markers assessment, particularly for improving the MBL-AJ-based method for early detection of a malignant condition in cervical specimens.