High expression levels and simple downstream processing are essential for
the production of recombinant proteins at low cost. We report here a new
expression vector which allows production of fusion proteins in
Dictyostelium discoideum. We made use of the ability of Discoidin I to
bind Sepharose-4B to set up a nearly single step purification procedure.
The Discoidin I coding region was fused to several forms of the malaria
parasite CSP gene in a Dictyostelium expression vector, allowing
intracellular accumulation as well as partial secretion via a pathway
unrelated to the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi. The fusion proteins
present in cell extracts were affinity-purified over Sepharose-4B columns.
Addition of a signal peptide allowed endoplasmic reticulum targeting and
glycosylation of the fusion protein. Inclusion of a thrombin cleavage site
allowed to cleave Discoidin from the CSP protein. The use of stable and
low cost Sepharose 4B as affinity matrix should allow large-scale
preparations.