Figure 2. Purification of recombinant R. rubrum EncFtnsH.
(A) Recombinant SeMet-labeled EncFtnsH produced with 1 mM Fe(NH4)2(SO4)2 in the growth medium was purified by nickel affinity chromatography and size-exclusion chromatography using a Superdex 200 16/60 column (GE Healthcare). Chromatogram traces measured at 280 nm and 315 nm are shown with the results from ICP-MS analysis of the iron content of the fractions collected during the experiment. The peak around 73 ml corresponds to a molecular weight of around 130 kDa when compared to calibration standards; this is consistent with a decamer of EncFtnsH. The small peak at 85 ml corresponds to the 13 kDa monomer compared to the standards. Only the decamer peak contains significant amounts of iron as indicated by the ICP-MS analysis. (B) Peak fractions from the gel filtration run were resolved by 15% acrylamide SDS-PAGE and stained with Coomassie blue stain. The bands around 13 kDa and 26 kDa correspond to EncFtnsH, as identified by MALDI peptide mass fingerprinting. The band at 13 kDa is consistent with the monomer mass, while the band at 26 kDa is consistent with a dimer of EncFtnsH. The dimer species only appears in the decamer fractions. (C) SEC-MALLS analysis of EncFtnsH from decamer fractions and monomer fractions allows assignment of an average mass of 132 kDa to decamer fractions and 13 kDa to monomer fractions, consistent with decamer and monomer species (Table 2).