Notice of Retraction Expression of Functional Recombinant Barnacle Cement Protein Bacp-20k in Escherichia coli.

The barnacle is a unique sessile crustacean, which produces an insoluble proteinaceous cement for its attachment to underwater foreign substrata. The 20 kDa cement protein is a component of Balanus albicostatus cement. We amplified Bacp-20k gene from the basal tissue and cloned the target gene into the prokaryotic expressing vector, pET-32a. After transformation, a soluble protein fused with a hexahistidine affinity ligand was expressed in E.coli Rosettagami (DE3). The recombinant protein was highly purified using affinity chromatography. The adhesive properties of purified recombinant Bacp-20k were examined by quartz crystal microbalance. The results indicated that recombinant Bacp-20k had strong adhesive ability and showed the possibility to be a practical water-resistant bioadhesive in medical or underwater environments.