Purification of daptomycin binding proteins (DBPs) from the membrane of Enterococcus hirae

Daptomycin binding proteins (DBPs) are membrane proteins which act as daptomycin targets. Daptomycin is a cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic which is active against Gram-positive bacteria and was shown to be the first inhibitor of lipoteichoic acid (LTA) synthesis. It was found that the antibiotic did not penetrate the bacterial cytoplasm but bound membranes with a non-covalent bond and in particular some proteins which were called DBPs. DBPs were indicated as enzymes involved in LTA synthesis whose binding and inhibition by daptomycin is responsible for the observed effect on bacterial LTA synthesis. The purification of DBPs will make it possible not only to shed light on the biosynthesis of the cell wall polymer but will also provide innovative targets for selection of new antibacterial compounds. In this study, the purification of DBPs is described. Affinity chromatography was used with daptomycin as the ligand. Final elution of DBPs from daptomycin-coupled resin was performed using either 0.1% SDS or 3 M NaCl. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the eluted protein fractions consistently showed four protein bands (ranging from 55 to 66 kDa) in denaturating conditions and two protein bands (60 and 66 kDa) in non-denaturating conditions. Isoelectrofocusing analysis of the same sample consistently revealed two bands with pIs around 5. That these purified proteins were really the desired DBPs is demonstrated by the retention of daptomycin-binding capability they displayed.