| Abstract: | Self-incompatibility is an intraspecific reproductive barrier to prevent self-fertilization in the flowering plants.In many species,self-incompatibility is controlled by a single S locus with multiple alleles.So far,the only gene known in the S locus of the Solanaceae,Scrophulariaceae and Rosaceae encodes a class of ribonucleases,called self-incompatibility ribonucleases (S RNases),which have been shown to mediate stylar expression of self-incompatible reaction.As the first step to investigate their three-dimensional structure,we successfully expressed three biologically active S RNases of Antirrihnum (S2,S4 and S5) in Escherichia coli (E.coli).Their functional expressions caused no detrimental effect on host bacteria growth and provided a basis for a large scale preparation of S RNase proteins.Possible reasons for non-lethality of S RNases on E.coli are discussed. |
