Expression of native rabbit light meromyosin in Escherichia coli: Observation of a powerful internal translation initiation site

The cDNA-sequence coding for rabbit skeletal muscle light meromyosin (LMM) was placed under the control of the lambda promoter (PL) of an Escherichia coli expression vector. The resulting plasmid pEXLMM74 expressed non-fused rabbit skeletal muscle LMM with yields ranging from 1 to 5% of the total proteins of E. coli. This LMM was specifically recognized by polyclonal antibodies raised against chicken pectoralis muscle myosin. It could be highly enriched from E. coli extracts by using two cycles of high and low ionic strength buffer.