Prochymosin expression in Bacillus subtilis

Prochymosin (PC) sequence was cloned in Bacillus subtilis using two kinds of plasmid constructions. In plasmid pSM316 the cDNA was inserted to obtain the intracellular expression of the enzyme. The enzyme turned out to be expressed in an insoluble form which could be converted to native enzyme under proper denaturing and refolding conditions. The levels of intracellular expression of PC were further enhanced by modifying the 5' region of the gene in a way that a two-cistron expression system was created. For the PC secretion, the cDNA was fused to the subtilisin leader sequence and expressed under the control of the B. subtilis neutral protease promoter. A properly folded PC was secreted by the cells, although to low levels.     

Analysis of the disulfide bonding pattern between domain sequences of recombinant prochymosin solubilized from inclusion bodies

Prochymosin contains three disulfide bonds linking Cys45 to Cys50, Cys206 to Cys210, and Cys250 to Cys283. To analyze the disulfide bonding pattern between domain sequences in the recombinant prochymosin molecule solubilized from inclusion bodies by 8 M urea (designated as solubilized prochymosin), a simple peptide mapping method was established. This process consists of thiol alkylation, cleavage with cyanogen bromide, diagonal electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel, and N-terminal sequencing. By using this procedure it was found that Cys45 and Cys50 located in the N-terminal domain are not mispaired with the cysteine residues, located in the C-terminal domain, in the solubilized wild-type prochymosin and its mutants. This result implies that Cys45 and Cys50, the partners of a native disulfide, are restricted in some ordered structures existing in inclusion bodies and remaining after solubilization. These native structural elements act as folding nuclei to initiate and facilitate correct refolding. The strategy of preserving the native-like structures including native disulfide in the solubilized inclusion bodies to enhance renaturation efficiency may be applicable to other recombinant proteins.Both authors contributed equally to this work     

双峰驼凝乳酶原基因的生物信息学分析

通过生物信息学的方法对双峰驼凝乳酶原基因及相应的氨基酸序列的同源性、理化性质、保守结构域、亚细胞定位、信号肽、跨膜结构域、亲水性/疏水性、二级结构进行预测分析.结果表明,双峰驼凝乳酶原基因开放阅读框全长1 146 bp,编码381个氨基酸,属于胃蛋白酶A超家族,预测定位于内质网（膜）的稳定亲水性蛋白,具有一个16个氨基酸的信号肽,其不含跨膜结构域.无规卷曲是其二级结构中最大量的结构元件,α螺旋和延抻链分散于整个蛋白质中,活性位点的分析表明,编码蛋白有6类活性位点.分析双峰驼凝乳酶原基因及其编码蛋白质的特征,能够为深入开展双峰驼凝乳酶的表达和凝乳特性研究提供理论依据.     

Prochymosin activation by non-aspartic proteinases

Prochymosin can be converted into chymosin by an action of external proteinases. Thus, thermolysin at pH 5.05 converts calf prochymosin into active Phe-chymosin, which is one amino acid longer than chymosin from the N-terminus with a yield of 73%. Even better results were achieved with prochymosin activation by Legionella pneumophila metalloproteinase. Apparently the stretch of prochymosin polypeptide chain adjacent to the normally observed activation point becomes available for an attack by an external proteinase at pH 5.0–6.0. These data indicate that the intermolecular activation pathway might be of physiological importance.