高浓度c—Myc羧基端的体外自身二聚体化活性

将编码人c-myc羧基端bHLH／LZ结构域的92个氨基酸的cDNA片段（c-myc-c92）对框插入pGEX－2T原核表达载体中,使之与谷胱甘肽转移酶（GST）编码基因融合,并将重质粒导入大肠杆菌BL21（DE3）中,由IPTG诱导融合基因高效表达,并用Glutathione Sepharose4B亲和柱纯化融合蛋白GST－c-Myc-c92,凝胶阻滞（EMSA）分析显示该纯化蛋白能与CACGTG序列特异结合,并且只有高浓度的GST－c-Myc-c92才能与探针结合,结果表明在体上情况下高浓度c-Myc羟基端能自身二聚体化,此发现丰富了Myc-Max-Mad的调控网络,并为进一步研究c-myc的功能和调控提供了一定的线索。     

Growth hormone receptor and serum binding protein: purification, cloning and expression

A putative growth hormone receptor from rabbit liver and the growth hormone binding protein from rabbit serum have the same amino-terminal amino-acid sequence, indicating that the binding protein corresponds to the extracellular hormone-binding domain of the liver receptor. The complete amino-acid sequences derived from complementary DNA clones encoding the putative human and rabbit growth hormone receptors are not similar to other known proteins, demonstrating a new class of transmembrane receptors.     

Protein activity regulation by conformational entropy

How the interplay between protein structure and internal dynamics regulates protein function is poorly understood. Often, ligand binding, post-translational modifications and mutations modify protein activity in a manner that is not possible to rationalize solely on the basis of structural data. It is likely that changes in the internal motions of proteins have a major role in regulating protein activity, but the nature of their contributions remains elusive, especially in quantitative terms. Here we show that changes in conformational entropy can determine whether protein-ligand interactions will occur, even among protein complexes with identical binding interfaces. We have used NMR spectroscopy to determine the changes in structure and internal dynamics that are elicited by the binding of DNA to several variants of the catabolite activator protein (CAP) that differentially populate the inactive and active DNA-binding domain states. We found that the CAP variants have markedly different affinities for DNA, despite the CAP?DNA-binding interfaces being essentially identical in the various complexes. Combined with thermodynamic data, the results show that conformational entropy changes can inhibit the binding of CAP variants that are structurally poised for optimal DNA binding or can stimulate the binding activity of CAP variants that only transiently populate the DNA-binding-domain active state. Collectively, the data show how changes in fast internal dynamics (conformational entropy) and slow internal dynamics (energetically excited conformational states) can regulate binding activity in a way that cannot be predicted on the basis of the protein's ground-state structure.