PRODUCTION OF NATIVE FLAGELLIN FROM Salmonella Typhimurium IN A BIOREACTOR AND PURIFICATION BY TANGENTIAL ULTRAFILTRATION

Flagellin is the structural protein and most abundant component of bacterial flagella. The flagellum filament contains around 20,000 – 100,000 subunits of 50 kDa flagellin that can have diverse biotechnological applications such as vaccine adjuvant and cellular protector during chemoand radiotherapy. The main aim of this work was to study a production process of purified native FliC flagellin of Salmonella Typhimurium. The culture conditions in shakers were established with medium devoid of animal-derived components. In bioreactors, culture conditions were established in order to obtain flagellin from the culture supernatant by tangential ultrafiltration (TUF). The concentrated 750 kDa cut-off TUF fraction had a purification factor of 1.5 and a recovery yield of 52.2% for flagellin. The volumetric production of flagellin using the described procedure achieved around 307 mg/L of culture, which represented a significant improvement over previously reported methods. These results permit the development of production and purification processes that can be easily scaled up.