锌指蛋白及人工锌指蛋白对微生物代谢影响的研究进展

锌指蛋白由于锌指结构域序列相对保守,识别DNA序列具有高度特异性,所以成为研究较广泛的DNA结合蛋白,但目前对锌指蛋白的研究多集中在真核细胞,而对微生物锌指蛋白,尤其是原核微生物锌指蛋白的研究相对较少。本文综述了近年来微生物锌指蛋白,尤其是原核微生物锌指蛋白的发现及功能的最新研究进展,以及人工锌指蛋白技术在微生物菌株改造中的应用。特定人工锌指蛋白不仅可调控微生物细胞中多基因控制的复杂性状,例如耐热性、乙醇和丁醇耐性、渗透胁迫耐受性等,还可以利用锌指结构域构建DNA脚手架系统,进而构建复合酶系统,从而提高催化效率和代谢物产量。目前报道的用于微生物代谢调控的人工锌指蛋白利用的都是哺乳动物的基因,未来根据不同微生物中天然锌指蛋白的序列进行人工锌指的设计,将拓展人工转录因子技术在微生物全局基因表达调控中的应用。     

Haemonchus contortus: evaluation of two signal sequence trapping systems for detection of secreted molecules

Given that signal sequences between secreted proteins of different species can be interchanged, it is reasonable to expect that both mammalian and yeast signal sequence trapping (SST) systems would secrete Haemonchus contortus proteins with similar efficiency and quality. To determine if H. contortus cDNAs that contain a signal sequence could re-establish secretion of a reporter protein, mammalian and yeast SST vectors were designed, 10 H. contortus genes selected, and their respective cDNAs cloned into these two SST vectors. The selected molecules included genes known to code for excretory/secretory or membrane-bound proteins as potential test 'positives', and genes known to code for non-secreted proteins as test 'negatives'. While differentiation between secretion and non-secretion was evident in both systems, the results indicated greater efficiency was achieved when the mammalian system was used. Therefore, mammalian SST using COS cells would be a more useful tool to screen H. contortus cDNA libraries for potential secreted and type-1 integral membrane proteins than yeast SST.