表达GP64的重组HaSNPV的构建研究

杆状病毒的出芽病毒具有两类不同的膜融合蛋白, 组 I类型的杆状病毒利用的是膜融合蛋白GP64, 而组 II类型的杆状病毒利用的是膜融合蛋白F。本文以组II类型的HaSNPV为研究对象, 研究组I类病毒的GP64能否在组 II类病毒中正确表达和包装。利用 Bac to Bac系统, 构建了带有 AcMNPV膜融合蛋白 GP64 和增强型绿色荧光蛋白的重组病毒HaSNPVgp64 egfp , 同时构建了仅带有增强型绿色荧光蛋白的对照重组病毒 HaSNPVegfp , 通过对HaSNPVgp64 egfp 感染的HzAM1细胞及所产生的子代BV的Western blot检测, 证明GP64可在HzAM1中表达, 并被包装入子代BV。     

GP64表面展示元件与组Ⅱ HaSNPV出芽病毒的融合

利用杆状病毒组ⅠAcMNPV(Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus)GP64信号肽(GP64SP),C-末端跨膜区(GP64CTD)及报告基因绿色荧光蛋白(eGFP)构成的表面展示系统(gp64sp-egfp-gp64ctd),同源重组到组ⅡHaSNPV的多角体基因位置,筛选重组病毒。通过激光共聚焦观察,HaSNPV重组病毒感染Hz-AM1细胞后绿色荧光分布在质膜,表明GP64SP可以引导表达产物趋向于细胞膜。病毒感染后,收集并纯化重组的出芽病毒(BV),经Western blot检测,eGFP存在于重组病毒BV中。结果表明,组ⅠGP64表面展示系统中的重要元件GP64SP和GP64CTD能够装配到组ⅡHaSNPV BV上,可以用于组ⅡNPV表面展示目的蛋白。     

核衣壳蛋白VP39融合TAT转导肽对杆状病毒转导哺乳动物细胞的影响

为了提高昆虫杆状病毒在哺乳动物细胞中转导基因的效率,构建了重组杆状病毒AcRed-tat和AcRed。两者都能在哺乳动物细胞内表达红色荧光蛋白作为报告基因。同时,AcRed-tat带有HIV-1Tat转导肽、病毒主要衣壳蛋白基因vp39及增强型绿色荧光蛋白(egfp)三者的融合基因,并由杆状病毒多角体启动子表达,能够在昆虫细胞中表达该Tat融合蛋白,并掺入子代病毒粒子。而AcRed作为相应的对照病毒,带有多角体启动子表达vp39和egfp的融合基因。2株病毒分别转导哺乳动物细胞后,利用流式细胞仪检测报告基因的表达水平,发现在CHO和Vero细胞中AcRed-Tat介导的报告基因表达水平明显高于AcRed,而在HEK293细胞中2株病毒介导的报告基因表达水平差异不显著。结果表明Tat转导肽可以提高杆状病毒对一部分哺乳动物细胞的转导效率,为改进杆状病毒-哺乳动物细胞转导载体提供了新的思路。     

美洲棉铃虫细胞中dsRNA介导的egfp基因沉默分析

为了分析在美洲棉铃虫细胞( HzAM1)内RNAi的效果,将egfp基因克隆到含有双向T7启动子/终止子的质粒载体中,在体外合成全长的增强型绿色荧光蛋白(egfp)基因dsRNA,将dsRNA和含有能在昆虫细胞内表达eGFP的质粒一起转染HzAM1细胞,分析dsRNA对eGFP表达的抑制作用.结果显示,由egfp基因转录的长dsRNA能有效抑制HzAM1细胞内eGFP的表达,而且该抑制作用表现为剂量依赖效应.但是抑制作用并不彻底,在高剂量的dsRNA处理下,仍有部分细胞内能观察到eGFP的表达.     

Ⅱ类囊膜病毒膜融合的分子机制

病毒囊膜与宿主细胞膜的膜融合是囊膜病毒入侵的重要过程,病毒囊膜融合糖蛋白的一系列结构变化引发此过程.综述了Ⅱ类囊膜病毒、弹状病毒及疱疹病毒融合蛋白结构与功能研究的最新进展,介绍了软件分析并定位融合蛋白功能区域的方法.Ⅱ类病毒与Ⅰ类病毒融合蛋白的融合前结构不同,但融合后结构(发夹三聚体结构)相似.弹状病毒与疱疹病毒的融合蛋白集合了Ⅰ/Ⅱ类融合蛋白的某些特征,但其结构变化及融合过程各不相同,被归为新型融合蛋白.上述研究为基础设计的以病毒融合过程为靶标的抑制子,可为抗病毒新药的研制提供新思路.     

对虾白斑综合征病毒ORF220基因在昆虫细胞内的表达及其分布

对虾白斑综合征病毒厦门分离株ORF220编码真核生物GP130受体同源蛋白。将ORF220和绿色荧光蛋白编码基因融合在一起克隆到昆虫杆状病毒表达载体pFastBacI,然后与AcBacmid共同转染DH10B细胞。用PCR鉴定含有ORF220和EGFP基因的重组质粒,提取纯化重组质粒并转染昆虫细胞进行表达。结果发现,DNA转染后3-5d可以在荧光显微镜下观察到绿色荧光,表明融合蛋白在昆虫系统内成功表达。用病毒上清液感染昆虫细胞进行时相观察,结果表明,ORF220蛋白在昆虫细胞的细胞质和细胞核内呈随机分布,没有特异的细胞定位。     

HPV16L1核浆运输的动力学过程

利用增强型绿色荧光蛋白(Enhancegreenflurenscentprotein,EGFP)标记不同的截短型HPV16L1蛋白(Humanpapillomavirustype16L1protein,HPV16L1),分析HPV16L1蛋白核定位信号(Nucleuslocationsignal,NLS)的作用。构建重组pFB-EGFP、pFB-EGFP-HPV16L1、pFB-EGFP-HPV16L1△NLS和pFB-EGFP-NLSHPV16L1p转移载体;在DH10Bac宿主菌内经Tn7转座子介导的同源重组后转染Sf-9细胞,获得重组Ac-EGFP、Ac-EGFP-HPV16L1、Ac-EGFP-HPV16L1△NLS和Ac-EGFP-NLSHPV16L1杆状病毒,感染Sf-9昆虫细胞表达相应截短型HPV16L1融合蛋白;利用荧光显微镜和激光共聚焦显微镜观察不同融合蛋白的荧光特性和核浆转运动力学过程。结果发现Ac-EGFP杆状病毒感染的Sf-9细胞内明亮的绿色荧光均匀分布;重组Ac-EGFP-HPV16L1和Ac-EGFP-NLSHPV16L1杆状病毒感染的Sf-9细胞,明亮的绿色荧光主要位于细胞核内;重组Ac-EGFP-HPV16L1△NLS杆状病毒感染的Sf-9细胞,绿色荧光局限于细胞浆内,细胞核内无绿色荧光。说明HPV16L1蛋白羧基端的23个氨基酸(GKRKATPTTSSTSTTAKRKKRKL)具有完全核定位作用,能引导HPV16L1蛋白和EGFP突破核膜屏障进入Sf-9细胞核内。     

利用昆虫杆状病毒表达SARS冠状病毒的刺突蛋白和膜蛋白

SARS冠状病毒是人的严重急性呼吸综合征的病原体。对其他种类冠状病毒的研究结果显示,刺突蛋白(S蛋白)和膜蛋白(M蛋白)是病毒主要的结构蛋白。重组M蛋白和S蛋白可被用来作为抗原检测冠状病毒的感染和制备疫苗。这两个蛋白质分别被克隆并重组到昆虫杆状病毒基因组中,利用重组杆状病毒感染昆虫细胞来表达重组M蛋白和S蛋白,并对M蛋白进行了细胞内定位,融合蛋白的绿色荧光暗示了该蛋白质定位在细胞膜上。     

根癌农杆菌介导的增强型绿色荧光蛋白基因在淡紫拟青霉中的转化

为了实现增强型绿色荧光蛋白基因 (egfp) 在生防真菌淡紫拟青霉9410菌株中的转化,借助中间质粒pcDNA3.1(-) 构建nptⅡ-egfp融合基因的表达载体pUPNGT,然后采用根癌农杆菌介导的转化法将egfp基因转化到淡紫拟青霉9410菌株中。PCR检测和Southern blotting分析结果表明,egfp基因以单拷贝形式整合到淡紫拟青霉9410的基因组中。荧光显微镜观察结果显示,转化子在488 nm下能产生绿色荧光。这些结果说明egfp基因已成功转化至淡紫拟青霉9410菌株并获得表达。这些工作可为淡紫拟青霉在不同条件下的防效评价、环境安全评价等提供新的途径和方法。     

基于Profinity eXact系统的可溶性egfp表达和纯化

为研究Profinity eXact系统在蛋白表达及纯化过程中的效果,利用PCR扩增绿色荧光蛋白基因egfp,定向克隆至表达载体pPAL7上,转化BL21(DE3),荧光显微镜下观察诱导后的重组菌;取超声破碎的上清挂柱纯化,紫外下检测纯化后egfp发出荧光的特性,Western blot分析其免疫反应性。结果表明:诱导后的重组菌pPAL7-egfp/BL21(DE3)在紫外光下能够发出绿色荧光;一步纯化后的egfp蛋白同样也能在紫外激发下发出绿色荧光,同时egfp蛋白能和特异性抗体结合,具有良好的免疫反应性。实验结果说明Profinity eXact系统对于可溶性蛋白的表达和纯化,方法操作简单、快捷,具有很好的应用价值。     

Symmetric primary and tertiary structure mutations within a symmetric superfold: a solution, not a constraint, to achieve a foldable polypeptide

In previous studies designed to increase the primary structure symmetry within the hydrophobic core of human acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-1) a combination of five mutations were accommodated, resulting in structure, stability and folding kinetic properties similar to wild-type (despite the symmetric constraint upon the set of core residues). A sixth mutation in the core, involving a highly conserved Met residue at position 67, appeared intolerant to substitution. Structural analysis suggested that the local packing environment of position 67 involved two regions of apparent insertions that distorted the tertiary structure symmetry inherent in the beta-trefoil architecture. It was postulated that a symmetric constraint upon the primary structure within the core could only be achieved after these insertions had been deleted (concomitantly increasing the tertiary structure symmetry). The deletion of these insertions is now shown to permit mutation of position 67, thereby increasing the primary structure symmetry relationship within the core. Furthermore, despite the imposed symmetric constraint upon both the primary and tertiary structure, the resulting mutant form of FGF-1 is substantially more stable. The apparent inserted regions are shown to be associated with heparin-binding functionality; however, despite a marked reduction in heparin-binding affinity the mutant form of FGF-1 is surprisingly approximately 70 times more potent in 3T3 fibroblast mitogenic assays. The results support the hypothesis that primary structure symmetry within a symmetric protein superfold represents a possible solution, rather than a constraint, to achieving a foldable polypeptide.     

Integrating statistical pair potentials into protein complex prediction

The biophysical study of protein-protein interactions and docking has important implications in our understanding of most complex cellular signaling processes. Most computational approaches to protein docking involve a tradeoff between the level of detail incorporated into the model and computational power required to properly handle that level of detail. In this work, we seek to optimize that balance by showing that we can reduce the complexity of model representation and thus make the computation tractable with minimal loss of predictive performance. We also introduce a pair-wise statistical potential suitable for docking that builds on previous work and show that this potential can be incorporated into our fast fourier transform-based docking algorithm ZDOCK. We use the Protein Docking Benchmark to illustrate the improved performance of this potential compared with less detailed other scoring functions. Furthermore, we show that the new potential performs well on antibody-antigen complexes, with most predictions clustering around the Complementarity Determining Regions of antibodies without any manual intervention.     

Protein microarrays as a discovery tool for studying protein–protein interactions

Exploring the function of the genome and the encoded proteins has emerged as a new and exciting challenge in the postgenomic era. Novel technologies come into view that promise to be valuable for the investigation not only of single proteins, but of entire protein networks. Protein microarrays are the innovative assay platform for highly parallel in vitro studies of protein–protein interactions. Due to their flexibility and multiplexing capacity, protein microarrays benefit basic research, diagnosis and biomedicine. This review provides an overview on the basic principles of protein microarrays and their potential to multiplex protein–protein interaction studies.     

The heat capacity of proteins

The heat capacity plays a major role in the determination of the energetics of protein folding and molecular recognition. As such, a better understanding of this thermodynamic parameter and its structural origin will provide new insights for the development of better molecular design strategies. In this paper we have analyzed the absolute heat capacity of proteins in different conformations. The results of these studies indicate that three major terms account for the absolute heat capacity of a protein: (1) one term that depends only on the primary or covalent structure of a protein and contains contributions from vibrational frequencies arising from the stretching and bending modes of each valence bond and internal rotations; (2) a term that contains the contributions of noncovalent interactions arising from secondary and tertiary structure; and (3) a term that contains the contributions of hydration. For a typical globular protein in solution the bulk of the heat capacity at 25°C is given by the covalent structure term (close to 85% of the total). The hydration term contributes about 15 and 40% to the total heat capacity of the native and unfolded states, respectively. The contribution of non-covalent structure to the total heat capacity of the native state is positive but very small and does not amount to more than 3% at 25°C. The change in heat capacity upon unfolding is primarily given by the increase in the hydration term (about 95%) and to a much lesser extent by the loss of noncovalent interactions (up to ～5%). It is demonstrated that a single universal mathematical function can be used to represent the partial molar heat capacity of the native and unfolded states of proteins in solution. This function can be experimentally written in terms of the molecular weight, the polar and apolar solvent accessible surface areas, and the total area buried from the solvent. This unique function accurately predicts the different magnitude and temperature dependences of the heat capacity of both the native and unfolded states, and therefore of the heat capacity changes associated with folding/unfolding transitions. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A large scale test of computational protein design: folding and stability of nine completely redesigned globular proteins

A previously developed computer program for protein design, RosettaDesign, was used to predict low free energy sequences for nine naturally occurring protein backbones. RosettaDesign had no knowledge of the naturally occurring sequences and on average 65% of the residues in the designed sequences differ from wild-type. Synthetic genes for ten completely redesigned proteins were generated, and the proteins were expressed, purified, and then characterized using circular dichroism, chemical and temperature denaturation and NMR experiments. Although high-resolution structures have not yet been determined, eight of these proteins appear to be folded and their circular dichroism spectra are similar to those of their wild-type counterparts. Six of the proteins have stabilities equal to or up to 7kcal/mol greater than their wild-type counterparts, and four of the proteins have NMR spectra consistent with a well-packed, rigid structure. These encouraging results indicate that the computational protein design methods can, with significant reliability, identify amino acid sequences compatible with a target protein backbone.     

Lethal mutations in the major homology region and their suppressors act by modulating the dimerization of the rous sarcoma virus capsid protein C‐terminal domain

An infective retrovirus requires a mature capsid shell around the viral replication complex. This shell is formed by about 1500 capsid protein monomers, organized into hexamer and pentamer rings that are linked to each other by the dimerization of the C‐terminal domain (CTD). The major homology region (MHR), the most highly conserved protein sequence across retroviral genomes, is part of the CTD. Several mutations in the MHR appear to block infectivity by preventing capsid formation. Suppressor mutations have been identified that are distant in sequence and structure from the MHR and restore capsid formation. The effects of two lethal and two suppressor mutations on the stability and function of the CTD were examined. No correlation with infectivity was found for the stability of the lethal mutations (D155Y‐CTD, F167Y‐CTD) and suppressor mutations (R185W‐CTD, I190V‐CTD). The stabilities of three double mutant proteins (D155Y/R185W‐CTD, F167Y/R185W‐CTD, and F167Y/I190V‐CTD) were additive. However, the dimerization affinity of the mutant proteins correlated strongly with biological function. The CTD proteins with lethal mutations did not dimerize, while those with suppressor mutations had greater dimerization affinity than WT‐CTD. The suppressor mutations were able to partially correct the dimerization defect caused by the lethal MHR mutations in double mutant proteins. Despite their dramatic effects on dimerization, none of these residues participate directly in the proposed dimerization interface in a mature capsid. These findings suggest that the conserved sequence of the MHR has critical roles in the conformation(s) of the CTD that are required for dimerization and correct capsid maturation. Proteins 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A solubility-enhancement tag (SET) for NMR studies of poorly behaving proteins

Protein-fusion constructs have been used with great success for enhancing expression of soluble recombinant protein and as tags for affinity purification. Unfortunately the most popular tags, such as GST and MBP, are large, which hinders direct NMR studies of the fusion proteins. Cleavage of the fusion proteins often re-introduces problems with solubility and stability. Here we describe the use of N-terminally fused protein G (B1 domain) as a non-cleavable solubility-enhancement tag (SET) for structure determination of a dimeric protein complex. The SET enhances the solubility and stability of the fusion product dramatically while not interacting directly with the protein of interest. This approach can be used for structural characterization of poorly behaving protein systems, and would be especially useful for structural genomics studies.     

Improvement of protein stability in protein microarrays

Protein stability in microarrays was improved using protein stabilizers. PEG 200 at 30% (w/v) was the most efficient stabilizer giving over 4-fold improvement in protein stability compared to without the stabilizer. PEG 200 above 10% (w/v) in the array solution prevented the evaporation of water in the sample and thereby improved protein stability in the microarray. When the streptavidin-biotin binding reaction was performed under optimized conditions, biotin-BSA-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) was detected from 1 ng ml^–1 to 5 g ml^–1 by fluorescence analysis.