玉米(Zea mays L.)中凋亡相关基因c-myc同源序列的检出及其染色体原位杂交定位

原癌基因c-myc是普遍存在于动物组织中的一个高度保守的细胞凋亡相关基因,决定着多种动物细胞的凋亡。我们首次以人c-myc的基因组DNA为探针,用生物素标记的原位杂交和酶联级联放大检测系统在玉米中检出了c-myc基因的同源序列,并对其进行了染色体物理定位。在第5染色体长臂近末端、第4染色体长臂近着丝粒及第1染色体短臂近着丝粒处检测到杂交信号,信号与着丝粒的百分距离分别为96.21±4.46、24.11±0.47和10.02±1.04,本结果为寻找和研究植物细胞凋亡基因提供了重要线索。     

蛋白质双向电泳、印迹转移及蛋白质合成无细胞体系技术在小鼠腹水细胞EF-3研究中的应用

本文应用近年发展起来的生化技术――蛋白质双向电泳（其第一向为等电聚焦,第二向为SDS凝胶电泳）,将小鼠腹水细胞核糖体蛋进行了指纹分离。并利用蛋白质印迹转移（Western blotting）,将转移后的硝酸纤维膜与交联了碱性磷酸酶的第二抗体和抗酵母EF-3抗体反应,证实该核糖体蛋白含有EF-3同源片段,进而制备了蛋白质合成无细胞体系。通过测定PolyU指导下3 H-phe掺入活力的免疫失活实验,初步证实此同源片段是小鼠腹水细胞蛋白质合成所必需。 The ribosomal proteins of H22a cell,were separated with the method of two-D gel electrophoresis (the first dimention is isoelectric focus and the second is SDS PAGE).Then the Western blotting was used,the transferred nitrocellulose sheet was treated with antiyeast EF-3 antibody and the second antibody bonded with alklinephosphoesterase.The result shows that the ribosomal proteins have a homologous fragment to yeast EF-3 factor.The cell-free system of protein synthesis was also established.By determing the activity of polyU direeted 3H-phe intervention in immunodeactivitive experiment,it is primaril confirmed that this fragment is the esscntial for the protein biosynthesis in H22a cell.     

Analysis of the Bacillus subtilis recO gene: RecO forms part of the RecFLOR function

The deduced protein product of the Bacillus subtilis gene yqfI, which is 255 residues long, shares homology (25% identity) with the Escherichia coli RecO protein. A null allele of yqfI, when present in an otherwise Rec⁺ B. subtilis strain, causes cells to become highly sensitive to DNA-damaging agents, and plasmid transformation (intramolecular recombination) is reduced by 25-fold while chromosomal transformation (intermolecular recombination) is only moderately affected (2.5-fold reduction). Therefore, the yqfI gene was renamed recO and its null allele is referred to as recO1. The recO1 mutation was introduced into recombination-deficient strains representative of the epistatic groups α (recF, recR and recL strains), β (addA5 addB72), γ (recH342) and ɛ (recU40). The recO mutation did not affect the sensitivity of recF, recR or recL cells to DNA-damaging agents, increased the sensitivity of recU and addAB cells and abolished the DNA repair capacity of recH cells. The recO mutation did not affect intermolecular recombination in recF, recL, recH or recU cells, but reduced (by about 9-fold) the incidence of intermolecular recombination in addAB cells. The recO mutation did not affect intramolecular recombination in the addAB, recU, recF or recL cells, but reduced it by about 75-fold in recH cells. The defects caused by the recO1 mutation can be partially suppressed by a common suppressor of the recF, recL and recR phenotypes. We therefore assigned recO to epistatic group α and predict that the RecO protein acts at the same stage of recombination as the RecF, RecL and RecR proteins, in a RecFLOR complex. Received: 5 October 1998 / Accepted: 28 January 1999     

Improvement of stability of nitrile hydratase via protein fragment swapping

Nitrile hydratase (NHase), which catalyzes the hydration of nitriles to amides, is the key enzyme for the production of amides in industries. However, the poor stability of this enzyme under the reaction conditions is a drawback of its industrial application. In this study, we aimed to improve the stability of NHase (PpNHase) from Pseudomonas putida NRRL-18668 using a homologous protein fragment swapping strategy. One thermophilic NHase fragment from Comamonas testosteroni 5-MGAM-4D and two fragments from Pseudonocardia thermophila JCM3095 were selected to swap the corresponding fragments of PpNHase. Seven chimeric NHases were designed using STAR (site targeted amino recombination) software and molecular dynamics to determine the crossover sites for fragment recombination. All constructed chimeric NHases showed 1.4- to 3.5-fold enhancement in thermostability and six of them become more tolerant to high-concentration product. Notably, one of these NHases, 3AB, exhibited a 1.4 ± 0.05-fold increase in activity compared to the wild-type PpNHase. Circular dichroism spectrum analysis and homology modeling revealed that the 3AB slightly differed in secondary structure from wild-type PpNHase. The 3AB constructed in this study is useful for further industrial application, and the method for designing the chimeric protein using homologous protein fragment swapping without a decrease in activity may be a strategy to improve the stability of other enzymes.     

Induction of direct repeat recombination by psoralen–DNA adducts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Defects in DNA repair increase gene copy number variation

Psoralen photoreaction produces covalent monoadducts and interstrand crosslinks in DNA. The interstrand DNA crosslinks are complex double strand lesions that require the involvement of multiple pathways for repair. Homologous recombination, which can carry out error-free repair, is a major pathway for crosslink repair; however, some recombination pathways can also produce DNA rearrangements. Psoralen photoreaction-induced recombination in yeast was measured using direct repeat substrates that can detect gene conversions, a form of conservative recombination, as well as deletions and triplications, which generate gene copy number changes. In repair-proficient cells the major products of recombination were gene conversions, along with substantial fractions of deletions. Deficiencies in DNA repair pathways increased non-conservative recombination products. Homologous recombination-deficient rad51, rad54, and rad57 strains had low levels of crosslink-induced recombination, and most products were deletions produced by single strand annealing. Nucleotide excision repair-deficient rad1 and rad2 yeast had increased levels of triplications, and rad1 cells had lower crosslink-induced recombination. Deficiencies in post-replication repair increased crosslink-induced recombination and gene copy number changes. Loss of REV3 function, in the error-prone branch, and of RAD5 and UBC13, in the error-free branch, produced moderate increases in deletions and triplications; rad18 cells, deficient in both post-replication repair sub-pathways, exhibited hyperrecombination, with primarily non-conservative products. Proper functioning of all the DNA repair pathways tested was required to maintain genomic stability and avoid gene copy number variation in response to interstrand crosslinks.     

Homologous Desensitization of the D1 Dopamine Receptor

Preincubation of D384 cells, derived from the human astrocytoma cell line G-CCM, with dopamine resulted in a time-dependent attenuation of cyclic AMP responsiveness to subsequent dopamine stimulation. This effect was agonist specific because the prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) stimulation of cyclic AMP of similarly treated cells remained unchanged. The attenuation by dopamine was concentration dependent with a maximum observed at 100 microM. A comparison of dopamine concentration-response curves of control and dopamine-preincubated cells revealed no change in the Ka apparent value, but a marked attenuation of the maximal response. Preincubation of cells with dopamine in the presence of D1 but not D2 selective antagonists partially prevented the observed attenuation. Attenuations in dopamine responsiveness were also obtained when D384 cells were preincubated with D1 but not D2 receptor agonists. The level of attenuation attained related to agonist efficiency in stimulating cyclic AMP: SKF38393 less than 3,4-dihydroxynomifensine less than fenoldopam less than 2-amino-6,7-dihydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene = dopamine. However, increasing the efficiency of 3,4-dihydroxynomifensine stimulation of cyclic AMP, using the synergistic effect of adding a low concentration of forskolin, produced no further change in the attenuation of the subsequent response to dopamine. Thus, the D1 dopamine receptors expressed by D384 cells undergo homologous desensitization. Uncoupling of the D1 dopamine receptor appears to be independent of cyclic AMP formation, analogous to a mechanism proposed for the beta-adrenergic receptor.     

Novel plasmid marker rescue transformation system for molecular cloning in Bacillus subtilis enabling direct selection of recombinants

Summary A versatile plasmid marker rescue transformation system was developed for homology-facilitated cloning in Bacillus subtilis. It is based on the highly efficient host-vector system 6GM15-pHPS9, which allows the direct selection of recombinants by means of -galactosidase -complementation. The system offers several advantages over previously described cloning systems: (1) the convenient direct selection of recombinants; (2) the ability to effectively transform B. subtilis competent cells with plasmid monomers, which allows the forced cloning of DNA fragments with high efficiency; (3) the availability of 6 unique target sites, which can be used for direct clone selection, SphI, NdeI, NheI, BamHI, SmaI and EcoRI; and (4) the rapid segregational loss of the helper plasmid from the transformed cells.     

Specific compositional patterns of synonymous positions in homologous mammalian genes

All 69 homologous coding sequences that are currently available in four mammalian orders were aligned and the synonymous (ie., third) positions of quartet (fourfold degenerate) codons were divided into three classes (that will be called conserved, intermediate, and variable), according to whether they show no change, one change, and more than one change, respectively. The three classes were analyzed in their compositional patterns. In the majority of GC-rich genes, the three classes of positions (but especially conserved positions) exhibited significantly different base compositions compared to expectations based on a random substitution process from the ancestral (consensus) sequence to the present-day (actual) sequences. Significant differences were rare in GC-poor genes.An analysis of the present results indicates that natural selection plays a role in the synonymous nucleotide substitution process, especially in GC-rich genes which represent the vast majority of mammalian genes.This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Motoo Kimura (1924–1994)Correspondence to: Giorgio Bernardi