Biosynthesis of bovine lactoferrin in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its anti-bacterial activity

The present study was undertaken to explore the possibility of cloning and expression of a full length bovine lactoferrin gene (rbLf) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and to study the antibacterial activities of recombinant bovine lactoferrin expressed from yeast. The obtained results showed that transformation of yeast cells with cDNA encoding bovine lactoferrin insert with eukaryotic expression vector occurred. Also, HPLC analysis data showed that the rbLf extracted from yeast media had the same retention time and molecular weight of the bovine lactoferrin standard. Recombinant lactoferrin extracted from medium demonstrated a greater inhibition effect than recombinant lactoferrin extracts from the cell lysates against Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli.