Quantitation and Characterization of CytochromecOxidase in Complex Systems

Quantitation of cytochromecoxidase in complex systems such as tissue homogenates is often hampered by the presence of other hemoproteins. Cyanide can bind to reduced cytochromecoxidase from diverse sources with a dissociation constant in the range of 0.1–0.5 mM and induces a characteristic optical change. This contrasts with the very weak binding of cyanide to reduced forms of many other hemoproteins, including hemoglobin and myoglobin. Hence, difference spectra of cyanide binding to reduced samples can provide an improved method to resolve and quantitate cytochromecoxidase. In addition, the cyanide compound of cytochromecoxidase is photolabile. This property can be exploited to further enhance the sensitivity of detection and analysis of cytochromecoxidase.     

Expression and One-Step Purification of a Fully Active Polyhistidine-Tagged Cytochromebc1Complex fromRhodobacter sphaeroides

ThefbcBandfbcCgenes encoding cytochromesbandc₁of thebc₁complex were extended with a segment to encode a polyhistidine tag linked to their C-terminal sequence allowing a one-step affinity purification of the complex. Constructions were madein vitroin a pUC-derived background using PCR amplification. The modifiedfbcoperons were transferred to a pRK derivative plasmid, and this was used to transform thefbc⁻strain ofRhodobacter sphaeroides,BC17. The transformants showed normal rates of growth. Chromatophores prepared from these cells showed kinetics of turnover of thebc₁complex on flash activation which were essentially the same as those from wild-type strains, and analysis of the cytochrome complement and spectral and thermodynamic properties by redox potentiometry showed no marked difference from the wild type. Chromatophores were solubilized and mixed with Ni-NTA–Sepharose resin. A modification of the standard elution protocol in which histidine replaced imidazole increased the activity 20-fold. Imidazole modified the redox properties of hemec₁, suggesting ligand displacement and inactivation when this reagent is used at high concentration. The purified enzyme contained all four subunits in an active dimeric complex. This construction provides a facile method for preparation of wild-type or mutantbc₁complex, for spectroscopy and structural studies.     

类球红细菌应用进展

类球红细菌(Rhodobacter Sphaeroides)属光合细菌,是目前研究最深入的光合微生物之一,具有多种代谢方式。不仅能够产生类胡萝卜素、辅酶Q10、超氧化物歧化酶、5-氨基乙酰丙酸和氢气,而且能够降解农药残留、有机废水和多环芳烃等有毒有害物质,应用领域十分广泛。本文综述了类球红细菌在食品、医药、农业、环境、氢气生产等领域中的应用进展,并对类球红细菌的应用前景进行展望。     

Genetic analysis of the bchC and bchA genes of Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Summary This study has identified by sequence analysis a single gene in the bchC locus of Rhodobacter sphaeroides and three genes, designated bchX, Y and Z, in the bchA locus, which was previously thought to contain only a single gene. All four genes may reside within the same operon and are transcribed in the order bchC-X-Y-Z. Complementation analysis of eight transposon insertion mutants within these genes suggests that bchX, Y and Z are essential for the reduction of 2-devinyl-2hydroxyethyl chlorophyllide a and that bchC encodes the 2-desacetyl-2-hydroxyethyl bacteriochlorophyllide a dehydrogenase. Similarity between the putative BchX protein and dinitrogenase reductase proteins suggests that BchX may also be a reductase, supplying electrons for reduction of 2-devinyl-2-hydroxyethyl chlorophyllide a.     

Overexpression, Purification, and Refolding of a Porphyromonas gingivalis Cysteine Protease from Escherichia coli

This paper describes the overexpression of the Rgp-1 (arginine) protease domain from Porphyromonas gingivalis. This protease and the related Kgp (lysine) protease, both of which display trypsin-like specificity, have been implicated as major virulence factors and may play a significant role in the etiology of periodontal disease. Both Rgp-1 and Kgp are initially translated as polyproteins, each containing a protease domain and multiple adhesin domains. The Rgp-1 protease domain was expressed in E. coli, purified, refolded, and assayed for activity. These expression studies demonstrated that prior to the formation of inclusion bodies in the E. coli cytoplasm, the protease was proteolytically active and could hydrolyze a specific synthetic substrate. When the Rgp-1 protease domain was purified from inclusion bodies and refolded, it was found to be autolytically active and displayed specific catalytic activity. This is the first report on the expression and purification of active Rgp-1 from E. coli. Polyclonal antisera raised against recombinant protein recognized the native form of the protease in the P. gingivalis strain W50, indicating that the recombinant protein contained some of the antigenic determinants of the native protease.     

类球红细菌类胡萝卜素抗氧化活性研究

研究了研磨法、超声波法、酸溶辅助超声波法和菌体浓度对类球红细菌类胡萝卜素抗氧化活性的影响。结果表明,不同提取方法和固液比条件下,类球红细菌类胡萝卜素均具有清除DPPH自由基能力、抗脂质过氧化能力和还原能力。酸溶辅助超声波法提取的类胡萝卜素产率最高、抗氧化活性最好。类球红细菌类胡萝卜素具有一定的抗氧化活性,其抗氧化活性随菌体浓度的增加而增加。     

Carotenoid triplet states in reaction centers from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides and Rhodospirillum rubrum

Purified photochemical reaction centers from three strains of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides and two of Rhodospirillum rubrum were reduced with Na₂S₂O₄ so as to block their photochemical electron transfer reactions. They then were excited with flashes lasting 5–30 ns. In all cases, absorbance measurements showed that the flash caused the immediate formation of a transient state (P^F) which had been detected previously in reaction centers from Rps. sphaeroides strain R26. Previous work has shown that state P^F is an intermediate in the photochemical electron transfer reaction in the reaction centers of that particular strain, and the present work generalizes that conclusion.

In the reaction centers from two strains that lack carotenoids (Rps. sphaeroides R26 and R. rubrum G9), the decay of P^F yields a longer-lived state (P^R) which is probably a triplet state of the bacteriochlorophyll of the reaction center. In the R26 preparation, the decay of P^F was found to have a half-time of 10±2 ns. The decay kinetics rule out the identification of P^F as the fluorescent excited singlet state of the reaction center.

In the reaction centers from three strains that contain carotenoids (Rps sphaeroides 2.4.1 and Ga, and R. rubrum S1), state P^R was not detected, and the decay of P^F generated triplet states of carotenoids. The efficiency of the coupling between the decay of P^F and the formation of the carotenoid triplet appeared to be close to 100% at room temperature, but somewhat lower at 77 °K. Taken with previous results, this suggests that the coupling is direct and does not require the intermediate formation of state P^R. This conclusion would be consistent with the view that P^F is a biradical which can be triplet in character.     

Cloning, Overexpression, Refolding, and Purification of the Nonspecific Phospholipase C fromBacillus cereus

Bacillus cereussecretes a nonspecific phospholipase C (PLC) that catalyzes the hydrolysis of phospholipids to yield diacylglycerol and a phosphate monoester.B. cereusPLC has been overexpressed with its signal sequence inEscherichia coliusing a T7 expression system. The expressed enzyme formed intracellular inclusion bodies which were solubilized in the presence of 8 urea. Renaturation was initiated by gradual removal of urea and addition of zinc ions. The signal peptide was specifically cleaved by a protease, clostripain, added when the urea concentration was 1.5 . Factors that led to protein reaggregation included rapid removal of urea, use of Tris instead of barbital buffer, and presence of the signal peptide when the urea concentration was below 1.5 . The folded protein was purified by Q-Sepharose Fast Flow chromatography to yield a preparation >99% pure. The final yield of active enzyme was 30–40 mg per liter of culture. The recombinant PLC exhibited biochemical and kinetic properties identical to those of extracellularly produced PLC fromB. cereus.Site-specific mutagenesis of Asn-134 was carried out as a test of the general effectiveness of the refolding procedure.     

Construction, Overexpression, and Purification of Arthrobacter globiformis Amine Oxidase–Strep-Tag II Fusion Protein

The copper-containing amine oxidase from Arthrobacter globiformis has been expressed and purified as a fusion protein with a C-terminal Strep-tag II peptide. This tag facilitates the rapid purification of the enzyme on a large scale using the StrepTactin POROS medium. For example, we have demonstrated that 50 mg of protein can be obtained in 2 days from 2 L of Escherichia coli. The purified fusion protein displays turnover and spectroscopic properties that are essentially identical to those of the wild-type enzyme. Given the location of the C-terminus in four amine oxidase crystal structures, this strategy should be quite general for the rapid purification of amine oxidases from multiple sources.     

Determination of free energies in reaction centers of Rb. sphaeroides

Magnetic field-dependent recombination measurements together with magnetic field-dependent triplet lifetimes (Chidsey, E.D., Takiff, L., Goldstein, R.A. and Boxer, S.G. (1985) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 82, 6850–6854) yield a free energy change ΔG(P⁺H⁻ − ³P*) = 0.165 eV ±0.008 at 290 K. This does not depend on whether nuclear spin relaxation in the state ³P* is assumed to be fast or slow compared to the lifetime of this state. This value, being (almost) temperature independent, indicates ΔG(P⁺H⁻ − ³P*) ΔH(P⁺H⁻ − ³P*) and is consistent with ΔG(¹P* − P⁺H⁻) and ΔH(¹P* − ³P*) from previous delayed fluorescence and phosphorescence data, implying ΔG ΔH for all combinations of these states.     

Correlation of membrane-potential-sensing carotenoid to pigment-protein complex II in Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides

The changes in carotenoid absorbance induced by illumination or by a diffusion potential were larger in chromatophores from cells cultured under low light intensity than those in chromatophores from high-light culture in a photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides. The carotenoid molecules which are associated with the pigment-protein complex (with the infrared bacteriochlorophyll peaks at 800 and 850 nm) (complex II) probably respond to the electrical field changes in the chromatophore membrane.     

Light- and diffusion-potential-induced shift of carotenoid spectrum in reconstituted vesicles of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides

Proteoliposomes were reconstituted from detergent-solubilized pigment · protein complexes of chromatophores of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides and soybean phospholipids. The reconstituted vesicles showed a photooxidation of reaction center bacteriochlorophyll and a light-induced spectral shift of carotenoid to longer wavelengths. The red shift similar to that in intact cells or chromatophores, indicates the generation of local fields in the membrane of proteoliposomes. When inside-positive membrane potential was induced by adding valinomycin and potassium salt, a shift of carotenoid spectrum to shorter wavelengths was observed. Therefore, the reconstituted vesicles, at least in the major part of population, produced the light-induced local field in the same direction as in intact cells, which is inside negative. Sidedness of the membrane structure and the direction of electric field formation in reconstituted vesicles were opposite to those in chromatophores (inside-out vesicles).     

转MhGlu基因烟草灰霉病抗性及光合特性研究

以湖北海棠盆栽及组培苗叶片为材料,经NaCl、PEG-6000及4℃下ABA处理后,通过RT-PCR技术克隆了湖北海棠β-1,3-葡聚糖酶基因MhGlu;构建MhGlu基因的植物表达载体,通过农杆菌介导法将MhGlu基因转入烟草中,并通过PCR和RT-PCR检测,成功获得了4个转基因株系T6、T8、T11和T18;以转基因烟草株系T6及T8和非转基因对照植株为材料,对MhGlu基因的功能进行了进一步分析。结果显示:(1)半定量qRT-PCR显示,NaCl、PEG-6000及4℃下ABA处理均可以诱导湖北海棠盆栽及组培苗叶片MhGlu基因的表达;NaCl和PEG-6000处理48h内MhGlu基因的表达随处理时间延长逐渐增强,4℃下ABA处理的MhGlu基因表达量在4h时开始上调,12h时略降低,48h时又达到最大。(2)半定量RT-PCR检测转基因烟草植株几个病程相关基因PRs的表达量,表明过表达的MhGlu基因诱导并增强了烟草病程相关基因NtPR1、NtPR3和NtPR5的表达。(3)用灰霉病侵染烟草叶片,转基因烟草株系T6、T8均表现出较强的抗灰霉病特性。(4)测定烟草植株光合特性参数,转MhGlu基因烟草株系的净光合速率(Pn)、蒸腾速率(Tr)和气孔导度(Gs)较对照组均显著提高,且T8的净光合速率和蒸腾速率均显著高于T6,而T8与T6的气孔导度差异不显著。MhGlu基因在烟草中的过量表达能诱导病程相关基因PRs的表达,激活了烟草的光合特性保护机制,提高了转MhGlu基因烟草植株的灰霉病抗性。     

Optimization of a Thermostable Lipase from Bacillus stearothermophilus P1: Overexpression, Purification, and Characterization

An expression library was generated from a partial NcoI and HindIII digest of genomic DNA from the thermophilic bacterium, Bacillus stearothermophilus P1. The DNA fragments were cloned into the expression vector pQE-60 and transformed into Escherichia coli M15[EP4]. Sequence analysis of a lipase gene showed an open reading frame of 1254 nucleotides coding a 29-amino-acid signal sequence and a mature sequence of 388 amino acids. The expressed lipase was isolated and purified to homogeneity in a single chromatographic step. The molecular mass of the lipase was determined to be approximately 43 kDa by SDS-PAGE and mass spectrometry. The purified lipase had an optimum pH of 8.5 and showed maximal activity at 55°C. It was highly stable in the temperature range of 30–65°C. The highest activity was found with p-nitrophenyl ester-caprate as the synthetic substrate and tricaprylin as the triacylglycerol. Its activity was strongly inhibited by 10 mM phenylmethanesulfonyl fluoride and 1-hexadecanesulfonyl chloride, indicating that it contains a serine residue which plays a key role in the catalytic mechanism. In addition, it was stable for 1 h at 37°C in 0.1% Chaps and Triton X-100.     

拟南芥GH3.9基因的过表达及其表型分析

为研究GH3.9基因在植物生长发育过程中的作用,利用RT-PCR成功克隆到GH3.9基因,该基因全长为1 750bp。通过构建pEGAD-GH3.9过表达载体转化拟南芥,获得过表达GH3.9基因纯系转基因株系GH3.9ox-3和GH3.9ox-7。对拟南芥野生型(WT)和转基因株系(GH3.9ox-3和GH3.9ox-7)幼苗用不同光强和光质进行处理,结果显示:在蓝光、红光、远红光等不同光照强度下培养,过表达株系幼苗下胚轴的生长均明显受到抑制,且较野生型明显;采用不同光周期处理拟南芥幼苗,过表达幼苗下胚轴的伸长明显低于野生型;对成年植株表型进行观察,发现过表达株系植株矮小、雄蕊变短、果荚短小。研究表明:GH3.9基因参与了拟南芥生长发育调控,过表达GH3.9基因对拟南芥生长有抑制作用。     

Molecular cloning, sequence and regulation of expression of the recA gene of the phototrophic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides

The recA gene of Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 has been isolated by complementation of a UV-sensitive RecA^– mutant of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Its complete nucleotide sequence consists of 1032 bp, encoding a polypeptide of 343 amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence displayed highest identity to the RecA proteins from Rhizobium mehloti, Rhizobium phaseoli, and Agrobacterium tumefaciens. An Escherichia coli-like SOS consensus region, which functions as a binding site for the LexA repressor molecule was not present in the 215 by upstream region of the R. sphaeroides recA gene. Nevertheless, by using a recA-lacZ fusion, we have shown that expression of the recA gene of R. sphaeroides is inducible by DNA damage. A recA-defective strain of R. sphaeroides was obtained by replacement of the active recA gene by a gene copy inactived in vitro. The resulting recA mutant exhibited increased sensitivity to UV irradiation, and was impaired in its ability to perform homologous recombination as well as to trigger DNA damage-mediated expression. This is the first recA gene from a Gram-negative bacterium that lacks an E. coli-like SOS box but whose expression has been shown to be DNA damage-inducible and auto-regulated.     

Structural Study of Escherichia coli NAD Synthetase: Overexpression, Purification, Crystallization, and Preliminary Crystallographic Analysis

Escherichia coli NAD synthetase was overexpressed and purified to homogeneity. The recombinant protein was active in an in vitro enzyme assay. The enzyme required approximately 1.5 mM magnesium for optimal activity. The pH optimum was found to be 8.0-8.5. The recombinant protein was crystallized at room temperature using the hanging-drop vapor diffusion technique with 1.5 M lithium sulfate, 0. 1 M Hepes buffer at pH 7.5 as precipitant. The protein was also crystallized in the presence of its substrates, nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide and adenosine triphosphate under similar conditions. These crystals diffract to 2.0-A resolution and belong to trigonal space group P3(1)21 with unit cell dimensions of a = b = 91.766, c = 74.17 A and alpha = beta = 90 degrees, gamma = 120 degrees. The structure of the complex has been determined using the molecular replacement method.     

AtNHX5基因过量表达对拟南芥耐盐性的影响

为了研究AtNHX5基因在植物耐盐中的作用,构建了植物过量表达载体pROKⅡ-AtNHX5,并转化拟南芥。结果显示:(1)RT-PCR检测表明,转基因拟南芥中AtNHX5基因的表达大幅提高。(2)对转基因纯合株系进行耐盐性分析显示,AtNHX5过量表达提高了植株在种子萌发和苗期的耐盐性。(3)转基因植株在盐处理下的干重、鲜重以及地上部分Na+、K+含量均高于野生型对照。在200mmol/L NaCl处理下,以转基因株系a1-4为例,其地上部分单株鲜重、单株干重、K+含量分别是野生型的1.27、1.54、1.16倍,较野生型显著升高。研究表明,过量表达AtNHX5基因促进了盐胁迫下转基因植株对K+的吸收,转基因拟南芥的耐盐性明显提高。