Effects of truncated mutants of the ε subunit of chloroplast ATP synthase on the fast phase of millisecond delayed light emission of chloroplast and its ATP synthesis ability

The ε subunit of the chloroplast ATP synthase and the truncated ε mutants which lack some amino acid residues from the N-terminus or C-terminus were overexpressed in E. coil When the ε subunit or the truncated ε proteins was added to the spinach chloroplast suspension, both the intensity of the fast phase of millisecond delayed light emission (ms-DLE) and the cyclic and noncyclic photophosphorylation activity of chloroplast were enhanced. With an increase in the number of residues deleted from the N-terminus, the enhancement effect of the N-terminal truncated proteins decreased gradually. For the C-terminal truncated proteins, the enhancement effect increased gradually with an increase in the number of residues deleted from the C-terminus. Besides, the ATP synthesis activity of ε-deficient membrane reconstituted with the ε subunit or the truncated ε proteins was compared. The ATP synthesis activity of reconstituted membrane with the N-terminal truncated proteins decreased gradually as the number of residues deleted from the N-terminus increased. For the C-terminal truncated proteins, the ATP synthesis activity of reconstituted membrane increased gradually with an increase in the number of residues deleted from the C-terminus, but was still lower than that of the wild type ε protein. These results suggested that: (a) the N-terminal domain of the ε subunit of the chloroplast ATP synthase could affect the ATP synthesis activity of ATP synthase by regulating the efficiency of blocking proton leakage of ε subunit; and (b) the C-terminal domain of the ε subunit of the chloroplast ATP synthase had a subtle function in modulating the ATP synthesis ability of ATP synthase.     

C-terminal domain of Chk1 regulates its subcellular location and kinase activity for DNA repair

Effector kinase Chk1 is an evolutionarily conserved protein kinase. It is a key mediator linking the mechanisms that monitor DNA integrity to components of the cell cycle engine. In this study, recombinant vectors pEGFP-C1-Chk1/C 288/C 334/C 368 were constructed and transfected into HeLa cells to study the effect of the Chk1 regulatory domain on the regulation of subcellular Chk1 location in response to DNA damage. We found that DNA damage-induced nuclear accumulation is regulated by 34 amino acids (334–368) in the C-terminal regulatory domain. Recombinant vectors pXJ41-Chk1/C 288/C 334/C 368 were co-transfected with reporter plasmid pEGFP-N2 into HeLa cells to study the repair abilities of the different human Chk1 truncation mutants. In addition, recombinant vectors were transfected into HeLa cells to study the effects of the different truncation mutants on the cell cycle. Furthermore, to study the kinase activity of the different truncation mutants, Ser216 phosphorylation of Cdc25C was studied by Western blot analysis. We found that the enzymatic activity of C 368, missing the 108 C-terminal amino acids (368–476), was higher than that of full-length Chk1, and C 368 delayed the cell cycle progression. The enzymatic activity of C 334, missing the 142 C-terminal amino acids (334–476), was equivalent to that of full-length Chk1. C 288, missing the 188 C-terminal amino acids (288–476), had almost no enzymatic activity, suggesting that the regulatory domain contains both inhibitory and regulatory elements. This study provides useful information for further research on Chk1 function.     

Characterization,gene cloning and expression of new xylanase XYNB with high specific activity

Extracellular xylanase XYNB from Streptomyces olivaeeoviridis A1 has been purified and characterized.The optimal pH value and temperature of XYNB for its activity are 5.2 and 60℃, respectively. The specific activity of XYNB is as high as 2869.78 U/mg. Metal cations, EDTA and SDS have no effects on enzyme activity of XYNB. The gene xynB coding mature protein of XYNB has been cloned by PCR. The forward oligonucleotide primer used in the PCR reaction was synthesized based on the N-terminal amino acid sequence of XYNB mature protein, and the reverse oligonucleotide primers are random oligonucleotide. The cloned gene xynB is 576 bp long and its G C content is 64.3%. The xynB encodes 191 amino acid residues, and the putative molecular weight of XYNB is 20.839 kD. The xynB has been expressed in E. coli, and the expressed xylanase has normal bioactivity.     

Nerve growth factor activity of several immunal related serine proteases

Rabbit was immuned by the previously purified protein with high nerve growth factor (NGF) bioactivity (NGF_like protease) from \%Agkistrodon halys Pallas\% and the antisera were collected. The polyclonal antibodies were tentatively purified and then used as ligands of an affinity column. The \%A.h.Pallas\% crude venom was fractionated by this affinity column and then by Mono Q on fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC). As a result, fraction Ⅱ and fraction Ⅲ were purified respectively, whose N_terminal amino acid sequences show high homology with the serine proteases in snake venoms, as well as the previous NGF_like protease. However, they possessed different levels of NGF bioactivity. The NGF activity of the previous NGF_like protease is equivalent to that of NGF, while the activity of fraction Ⅱ seems relatively low in contrast to fraction Ⅲ which had no NGF activity.     

N-terminal of L protein of vesicular stomatitis virus contains a new signal sequence

The L protein (241kD) of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is the most important snbnnit of the replication complex. The existence of specific localization signal in the L protein was investigated by making recombinant constructs expressing truncated mutants of the L protein fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) in transient transfection assays. The chimeric genes encoding varied N-terminal of L and GFP gene were put under the control of T7 promoter or CMV promoter. The fusion proteins were transiently expressed in BHK-21, COS-7, CHO or Hep G2 cells. When more than 120 residues were deleted or only 96 residues were kept on the N-terminal, the fusion proteins were shown to be distributed throughout the cells, cytoplasm and nucleus under the confocal microscope. However, other chimeric proteins with 120 or more amino acids were dotted and distributed in the perinuclear regions. And the fusion protein with 96—120 aa has the similar distribution. A thirteen-residue peptide QGYSFLHEVDKEA (108—120) was identified as localization signal, whose function would be absolutely distributed with the deficiency of D or V. Our results show that there is an independent localizing signal in N-terminal domain of L protein of VSV and this functional signal is conserved in different cell lines.     

cDNA cloning and expression of earthworm fibrinolytic enzyme component A

Earthworm fibrinolytic enzyme component A(EFEa),a protein with dual fibrinolytic activity ,is one of the major therapeutically important earthworm fibrinoltic enzyme components .The cDNA fragment encoded the mature protein was cloned from earthworm (Eisenia fetida )by the RT-PCR technique,The deduced amino acid sequence of the EFE component A show high homology with some members of serine proteases trypsin family,and the amino acid residues constituting the active sites are conserved in the EFEa as compared with the other proteins of the trypsin family ,The cDNA fragment was subcloned into the expression vector pQE31 and pMAL-c2X of E.coli.The resulting expression plasmids,pQE-efea and pMAL-efea ,were used to transform the E.coli strain M15.Recombinant protein bands corresponding with calcuated molecular witht were induced .The induced His6-EFEa fusion protein with pQE-efea was accumulated into inclusion body ,while the induced MBP-EFEa fusion protein with pMAL-efea was soluble and showed fibrinoloytic activities.     

The short C-terminal hydrophilic domain of NhaH Na~ /H~ antiporter from Halobacillus dabanensis with roles in resistance to salt and in pH sensing

The Na /H antiporter plays key roles in maintaining low cytoplasmic Na level and pH homeostasis,while little is known about the Carboxyl-terminal hydrophilic tails of prokaryotic antiporters.In our previous study,the first Na /H antiporter gene nhaH from moderate halophiles was cloned from Halo-bacillus dabanensis D-8 by functional complementation.A topological model suggested that only nine amino acid residues(395PLIKKLGMI403) existed in the hydrophilic C-terminal domain of NhaH.The C-terminal truncated mutant of NhaH was constructed by PCR strategy and designated as nhaH△C.Salt tolerance experiment demonstrated that the deletion of hydrophilic C-terminal nine amino acid resi-dues significantly inhibited the complementation ability of E.coli KNabc,in which three main Na /H antiporters nhaA,nhaB and chaA were deleted.Everted membrane vesicles prepared from E.coli KNabc/nhaH△C decreased both Na /H and Li /H exchange activities of NhaH,and also resulted in an acidic shift of its pH profile for Na ,indicating a critical role of the short C-terminal domain of NhaH antiporter in alkali cation binding/translocation and pH sensing.     

Expression, refolding and preliminary characterization of recombinant snake venom metalloproteinases: Implica- tion for the hemorrhagic mechanism

Local hemorrhage are common consequences of viperid and crotalid envenoming. Many experiments clearly demonstrated that local hemorrhage can be attributed to snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs), which comprise a series of zinc-dependent proteases of varying molecular masses[1,2]. More than 100 SVMPs, including the isozymes from the same species, have been isolated and the amino acid sequences of about 20 enzymes have been determined. They all contain a zinc-binding motif of HEXXHXXGX…     

Molecular cloning of a fulllength cDNA for ECBP21 from Angelica dahurica

ECBP21 is an extracellular calmodulin-binding protein which was first detected and purified from extracellular extracts of suspension-cultured cells of Angelica dahurica. The purified protein was electroblotted onto PVDF membrane and the amino acid sequences from 1 to 20 were determined. Using degenerate oligonucleotides of the sequence, a full-length cDNA coding for ECBP21 was isolated by a combination of RT-PCR and 5′-RACE cloning. The cDNA contains 947 nucleotides and codes for a precursor protein of 216 amino acids. The N-terminal 1–25 amino acid sequence is a predicted signal peptide and the other 26–216 amino acid sequence is a mature peptide. The 26–45 amino acid sequence shows identity with the N-terminal amino acid sequence of purified ECBP21 from Angelica dahurica. The fragment of encoding the mature protein was cloned into pET-28b(+) and transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3). A protein with relative molecular mass 21 ku was expressed in E. coli. Using a biotinylated-CaM gel overlay technique, the expression protein was tested for its ability to bind CaM. The results indicated that the expression protein is a Ca²⁺-dependent CaM-binding protein. Thus, these results further defined the cDNA clone for ECBP21. This work laid a foundation for elucidating biological functions of ECBP21 by using molecular biological means.     

Stepwise prediction and statistical screening: B-cell epitopes on neuraminidase of human avian H5N1 virus

The B-cell epitopes of virus are associated with the antiviral drug and the vaccine screening. As the nucleotide sequences of neuraminidase （NA） of stain GD-01-06 were sequenced, we predicted the a-helix and β-fold structure and the indexes of the flexible regions of secondary structure of NA with methods of the Hydrophilicity plot by Kyte-Doolittle, the Surface probability plot by Emini and the An- tigenic index by Jameson-Wolf, and then screened statistically the parameters to predict B-cell epi- topes by the Hierarchical cluster and the Bivariate correlation and the quartiles with SPSS 13.0. The impact of variation of amino acids in NA on its epitopes was analyzed. The predictive results were evaluated by Wu＇s Antigenic Index and SWISS-MODEL. We found that the most possible epitopes on NA were located within or nearby its N-terminal Nos. 120--137, 81--84, 408--415, 273--282, 429--432, 356--368, 46--55, 146--155, 341 --350 and 198--209, which were the dominant regions of NA epitopes. Peptide 120--137 including the glycoprotein domain （NGT126 128） was first chosen as the B-cell epitopes on NA. NA in H5N1 strain isolated after 2003 lacked in No. 53 amino acid （I）, resulting in an increase in the surface flexible region of NA in GD-01-06 and an enlargement to their epitope regions （VEP48-48→ VEPISNTNFL46-55）. Conclusively, prediction of the B-cell epitopes on the NA based on multiple pa- rameters is useful for researches on the molecular immunology and drug screening and immuno-prophylaxis. A deletion of No. 53 amino acid （I） in NA in strain GD-01-06 might increase its anti- genicity.     

Orientation of the peptide formation of N-phosphoryl amino acids in solution

The peptide formation of N-phosphoryl amino acids with amino acids proceeds in aqueous solution without any coupling reagents. After being separated in sephadex gel column, the phosphoryl dipeptides were analyzed by the electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESIMS/ MS). The result demonstrates that phosphoryl dipeptides were detected in all the reaction systems. It is found that the formation of N-phosphoryl dipeptides is oriented: the N-terminal amino acid residues of the N-phosphoryl dipeptides are from N-phosphoryl amino acids, and the peptide elongation happened at the C-terminal. Only a-dipeptide, no β-dipeptide, is formed in the N-phosphoryl dipeptides, showing that a-carboxylic group is activated selectively by N-phosphorylation. Theoretical calculation shows that the peptide formation of N-phosphoryl amino acids might happen through a penta-coordinate carboxylic-phosphoric intermediate in solution. These results might give some clues to the study on the origin of proteins and protein biosynthesis.     

Cloning, construction of prokaryotic expression vector and expression ofEscherichia coli cytosine deaminase gene

Cytosine deaminase gene ofEscherichia coli strain H-30 was cloned, and its initiation codon of ‘GTG’ was mutated to ‘ATG’ by PCR. Prokaryotic recombinant expression vector pBV220-CD was constructed. Clone with high enzyme activity were selected by detecting their specific activity of cytosine deaminase. 5-FC(5-FC, 5-fluorocytosine) could induce the lethal toxicity to cells containing active CD gene. DNA sequence analysis indicated that there were 16 altered bases and 5 of them resulted in the alteration of amino acids in predicted peptide by comparing DNA sequence of the clone H-30-CD-11 with high enzyme activity with CD gene reported in Gene Bank.     

Expression of human β-subunit nerve growth factor (hNGFB) in yeast Pichia pastoris and E. coli

The gene hNGFB encoding the β subunit of human nerve growth factor (hNGF) was cloned intoP. pastoris secretive expression vector pHIL-S1 andE. coli expression vector pET-15b. The recombinant hNGFB vectors pSNGF and pET15b-NGF were transformed intoP. pastoris host cell GS115 (Mut⁺, His⁻) andE. coli strain BL21 (DE3) respectively. Expression and secretion of hNGFB inP. pastoris was attempted under the direction of the AOX1 promoter and PHO1 signal sequence. The positive colonies growing on medium without histidine were further selected by PCR. The yield of rehNGFB in GS115 was about 14.4% of total cellular secretive protein. The secreted protein was immunological active on Western blotting with rabbit anti-mNGFB antibodies. The fusion protein yield of rehNGFB inE. coli BL21 (DE3) was about 10.3% of total cellular protein after IPTG induction. Western blot detection showed its immunological activity.     

A novel thermophilic endoglucanase from a mesophilic fungus Fusarium oxysporum

Cellulose is an abundant and renewable energy re- source on earth. Microorganisms produce multiple en- zymes to degrade cellulose, known as cellulase sys- tem[1]. Components of cellulase system were first clas- sified based on their modes of catalytic act…     

Cloning and characterization of a gene encoding cysteine proteases from senescent leaves of Gossypium hirsutum

A gene encoding a cysteine proteinase was isolated from senescent leave of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) cv liaomian No. 9 by utilizing rapid amplification of cDNA end spolymerase chain reaction (RACE-PCR), and a set of consensus oligonucleotide primers was designed to anneal the conserved sequences of plant cysteine protease genes. The cDNA, which designated Ghcysp gene, contained 1368 bp terminating in a poly(A)^ trail, and included a putative 5‘(98 bp) and a 3‘(235 bp) non-coding region. The opening reading frame (ORF) encodes polypeptide 344 amino acids with the predicted molecular mass of 37.88 kD and theoretical pl of 4.80. A comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence with the sequence in the GenBank database has shown considerable sequence similarity to a novel family of plant cysteine proteases. This putative cotton Ghcysp protein shows from 67% to 82% identity to the other plants. All of them share catalytic triad of residues, which are highly conserved in three regions. Hydropaths analysis of the amino acid sequence shows that the Ghcysp is a potential membrane protein and localizes to the vacuole, which has a transmembrane helix between resides 7-25. A characteristic feature of Ghcysp is the presence of a putative vacuole-targeting signal peptide of 19-amino acid residues at the N-terminal region. The expression of Ghcysp gene was determined using northern blot analysis. The Ghcysp mRNA levels are high in development senescent leaf but below the limit of detection in senescent root, hypocotyl, faded flower, 6 d post anthesis ovule, and young leaf.     

Genome organization and phylogenetic tree analysis of Garlic virus E, a new member of genus Allexivirus

The complete sequence of an Allexivirus isolated from garlic plants in Yuhang City, Zhejiang Province, China had been determined. The single-strand, positive RNA genome was 8451 nucleotides in length excluding poly(A) tail. The genome organization of this virus was similar to that of the other Allexiviruses but only with 62.8%–64.8% nucleotide acid identities. The amino acid sequences of proteins encoded by ORF1-6 shared 67.6%–78.5%, 55.4%–66.2%, 56.7%–66.4%,40.3%–55.6%,66.3%–79.7%and 52.2%–68.8% identities with those of the others respectively. The homology range between it and the other Allexiviruses was similar to that between the other distinct species in this genus. A more comprehensive comparison using all available CP amino acid sequences showed that it shared only 63.9%–79.8% amino acids identical with the others. Therefore, it had been considered as a new member of the genus, named as garlic virus E (GarV-E). Phylogenetic analysis confirmed GarV-E as a distinct member and the correct names and classification of some members of genus Allexivirus were also discussed.