Part:BBa_K1382000
Melittin
Melittin is an antimicrobial peptide which has strong hemolytic activity. It is a toxin which makes up 50-70% of bee venom. Melittin functions by inserting itself into lipid bilayers,creating pores which allow for the movement of ions. This ion exchange, especially of Ca2+, can also help to activate phospholipase A2 in the outer membrane of a cell. At higher concentrations, melittin forms larger pores that allow for the transport of molecules and which destabilize the cell membrane, eventually causing cell lysis.
Improvement on BioBrick
Contribution by Stony Brook iGEM 2015
Author: Chris Giuliano
In working with the sequence provided in this melittin biobrick, the 2015 Stony Brook iGEM team found the expression of melittin to be inconsistent. Therefore, with the goal of improving the production of melittin, the codons were optimized for production in E. coli, as the original biobrick simply took the sequence directly from its natural source of Apis mellifera. The result of the optimization were measured by a plate reader, as constructs of both the optimized melittin and regular melittin fused with mCherry were created. As the following graph depicts, this optimization resulted in a near 100 fold increase in production of melittin as measured by relative fluorescence. The optimized melittin biobrick can be found at BBa_K1810003 , while the optimized melittin mCherry fusion biobrick can be found at BBa_K1810002.
Sequence and Features
- 10COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
- 12COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
- 21COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]
- 23COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
- 25COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
- 1000COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]
| None |