Crystallization of ricin A chain obtained from a cloned gene expressed in Escherichia coli

Ricin is a heterodimeric toxin of the form AB, where B is a lectin which binds cell surfaces, triggering endocytosis. The B chain then aids the A chain in escaping from the endosome. The A chain enzymatically attacks and inactivates ribosomes, thereby killing the intoxicated cell. We have recently solved the three-dimensional structure of whole ricin. Here we report that the A chain, expressed from a gene cloned into Escherichia coli has been crystallized in a suitable form for high resolution x-ray analysis. The crystals are monoclinic space group P2(1) with a = 42.6, b = 68.1, c = 50.2 A and beta = 112.9 degrees. There is evidence that the A chain undergoes a conformational change, resulting in activation, when it is released from the B chain. Comparison of the two structures should facilitate an analysis of this process.     

Renaturation of cobra venom phospholipase A2 expressed from a synthetic gene in Escherichia coli.

Cobra venom (Naja naja naja) phospholipase A2 (PLA2) contains 14 cysteines in the form of 7 disulfide bonds amongst its 119 amino acids. A gene encoding the PLA2 was synthesized and inserted into a bacterial expression vector containing the phage lambda pL promoter. In order to obtain protein without the initiating methionine at the N-terminus, a Factor Xa site was engineered upstream from the PLA2 gene. Upon heat-induction of the cells transformed with the expression plasmid, the protein is produced as insoluble inclusion bodies. The enzyme was partially purified by washing the inclusion bodies with Triton X-100 and urea. The expressed protein was first denatured with 8 M guanidine-HCl and 10 mM DTT. After digestion with Factor Xa, formation of disulfide bonds and refolding into the fully active form was carried out in the presence of cysteine and Ca2+. The renatured recombinant protein was purified by Affi-gel blue column chromatography. The purified recombinant enzyme had the same specific activity as the native enzyme when assayed on a variety of substrates and cross-reacted with antisera prepared against the native enzyme. This is the first report of the expression of a recombinant PLA2 from any venom.     

High-yield purification of HIV-1 proteinase expressed by a synthetic gene in Escherichia coli.

A rapid and simple purification procedure for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) proteinase from a synthetic gene expressed in Escherichia coli has been developed. The synthetic gene was constructed from oligonucleotides containing several restriction enzyme sites in order to allow simple construction of homologous genes. The protein was translated as a precursor which was autocatalytically processed into the mature protein as shown by N-terminal sequence analysis of the purified protein. Immunoblot analysis was used to verify the nature of the expression product and it was found that 2 of 10 anti-peptide antibodies, covering the whole proteinase sequence, were able to react with the enzyme in crude bacterial lysates. These two anti-peptide antibodies represent a continuous sequence partially overlapping the active site. The purification involves two initial precipitation steps followed by cation-exchange and size-exclusion chromatography. A high yield and a high specific activity were achieved.     

Preparation and properties of a hybrid toxin of modeccin A-chain and ricin B-chain

Hybrid molecules were prepared from the A- and B-chains of the two toxic lectins ricin and modeccin by dialyzing mixtures of isolated chains to allow a disulfide bridge to be formed between them. Whereas the hybrid consisting of ricin A-chain and modeccin B-chain was non-toxic, the converse hybrid, modeccin A-chain/ricin B-chain, was even more toxic to Vero cells than were the parent toxins, native ricin and modeccin. A number of drugs (NH₄Cl, monensin, trifluoperazine, verapamil, ionophore A23187) which protect cells against modeccin, but not against ricin, protected to some extent against the toxic hybrid, but less so than against native modeccin. The possibility is discussed that the modeccin A-chain of the hybrid may enter the cytosol by two routes, one which is highly efficient and identical to that used by native modeccin and another less efficient one which cannot be used by native modeccin.     

Selection and characterization of ricin toxin A-chain mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A DNA sequence encoding the A chain of ricin toxin (RTA) from the castor bean plant, Ricinus communis, was placed under GAL1 promoter control and transformed into Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Induction of expression of RTA was lethal. This lethality was the basis for a selection of mutations in RTA which inactivated the toxin. A number of mutant alleles which encoded cross-reactive material were sequenced. Eight of the first nine mutant RTAs studied showed single-amino-acid changes involving residues located in the proposed active-site cleft.     

X-ray analysis of substrate analogs in the ricin A-chain active site.

Ricin A-chain is an N-glycosidase that hydrolyzes the adenine ring from a specific adenosine of rRNA. Formycin monophosphate (FMP) and adenyl(3'-->5')guanosine (ApG) were bound to ricin A-chain and their structures elucidated by X-ray crystallography. The formycin ring stacks between tyrosines 80 and 123 and at least four hydrogen bonds are made to the adenine moiety. A residue invariant in this enzyme class, Arg180, appears to hydrogen bond to N-3 of the susceptible adenine. Three hypothetical models for binding a true hexanucleotide substrate, CGAGAG, are proposed. They incorporate adenine binding, shown by crystallography, but also include geometry likely to favor catalysis. For example, efforts have been made to orient the ribose ring in a way that allows solvent attack and oxycarbonium stabilization by the enzyme. The favored model is a simple perturbation of the tetraloop structure determined by nuclear magnetic resonance for similar polynucleotides. The model is attractive in that specific roles are defined for conserved protein residues. A mechanism of action is proposed. It invokes oxycarbonium ion stabilization on ribose by Glu177 in the transition state. Arg180 stabilizes anion development on the leaving adenine by protonation at N-3 and may activate a trapped water molecule that is the ultimate nucleophile in the depurination.     

Dependence of ricin toxicity on translocation of the toxin A-chain from the endoplasmic reticulum to the cytosol

Ricin acts by translocating to the cytosol the enzymatically active toxin A-chain, which inactivates ribosomes. Retrograde intracellular transport and translocation of ricin was studied under conditions that alter the sensitivity of cells to the toxin. For this purpose tyrosine sulfation of mutant A-chain in the Golgi apparatus, glycosylation in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and appearance of A-chain in the cytosolic fraction was monitored. Introduction of an ER retrieval signal, a C-terminal KDEL sequence, into the A-chain increased the toxicity and resulted in more efficient glycosylation, indicating enhanced transport from Golgi to ER. Calcium depletion inhibited neither sulfation nor glycosylation but inhibited translocation and toxicity, suggesting that the toxin is translocated to the cytosol by the pathway used by misfolded proteins that are targeted to the proteasomes for degradation. Slightly acidified medium had a similar effect. The proteasome inhibitor, lactacystin, sensitized cells to ricin and increased the amount of ricin A-chain in the cytosol. Anti-Sec61alpha precipitated sulfated and glycosylated ricin A-chain, suggesting that retrograde toxin translocation involves Sec61p. The data indicate that retrograde translocation across the ER membrane is required for intoxication.     

Characterization of glucosyltransferase expressed from a Streptococcus sobrinus gene cloned in Escherichia coli

The gene encoding a glucosyltransferase which synthesized water-insoluble glucan, gtfI, previously cloned from Streptococcus sobrinus strain MFe28 (mutans serotype h) into a bacteriophage lambda vector, was subcloned into the plasmid pBR322. The recombinant plasmid was stable in Escherichia coli and gtfI was efficiently expressed. The GTF-I expressed in E. coli was compared to the corresponding enzymes in S. sobrinus strains MFe28 (serotype h), B13 (serotype d) and 6715 (serotype g) and shown to resemble them closely in molecular mass and isoelectric point. The insoluble glucan produced by GTF-I from recombinant E. coli consisted of 1,3-alpha-D-glycosyl residues (approximately 90%). An internal fragment of the gtfI gene was used as a probe in hybridization experiments to demonstrate the presence of homologous sequences in chromosomal DNA of other streptococci of the mutans group.     

Characterization of a recombinant C-type lectin, rCEL-IV, expressed in Escherichia coli cells using a synthetic gene

The body fluid of marine invertebrate Cucumaria echinata (Holothuroidea) contains four Ca2+-dependent galactose-specific lectins. One of these lectins, CEL-IV, is composed of a C-type carbohydrate-recognition domain homotetramer. CEL-IV exhibits higher specificity for alpha-galactosides than for beta-galactosides, while other C. echinata lectins show preferential binding of beta-galactosides. We constructed an artificial synthetic gene for recombinant CEL-IV (rCEL-IV) based on the amino acid sequence previously determined from the purified protein. rCEL-IV was expressed in Escherichia coli cells as inclusion bodies. After the refolding process, most of rCEL-IV spontaneously formed a homotetramer structure having interchain disulfide bonds. The secondary structure of rCEL-IV was similar to that of the native one, as judged by the comparison of the far UV-circular dichroism spectra of rCEL-IV and native CEL-IV (nCEL-IV). Carbohydrate-binding specificity of rCEL-IV was confirmed to be similar to that of nCEL-IV from the results of the binding-inhibition assay using liposomes composed of rabbit erythrocyte lipids. Crystals of rCEL-IV were obtained in a few days by the sitting drop vapor diffusion method. These results indicate that rCEL-IV achieved essentially correct three-dimensional structure, including the carbohydrate-binding sites, and it would be very useful for further study on the carbohydrate-recognition mechanism by mutational and X-ray crystallographic analyses.     

Abrin-a A chain expressed as soluble form in Escherichia coli from a PCR-synthesized gene is catalytically and functionally active

Abrin-a A chain (ABRaA) is a potent plant toxin, which possesses N-glycosylase activity toward eukaryotic 28S rRNA, and may have potential use in cancer therapy. To improve levels of expression in Escherichia coli, the gene encoding ABRaA was optimized by replacing rare codons with high-frequency ones, and synthesized using two-step PCR. The optimized ABRaA was cloned into the pET-His vector, and highly expressed in cytoplasm of E. coli. The yield of the purified recombinant (r) ABRaA proteins was up to 80 mg/l of induced culture. The rABRaA was one-step purified to homogeneity and its RNA-N-glycosylase ability to inhibit protein biosynthesis in a cell-free system and to depurinate 28S rRNA in rat liver ribosomes was demonstrated in vitro. The MTT assay showed that it also had a killing effect on human hepatoma cell line SMMC-7721 and myeloma cell line Sp2/0. For the first time, ABRaA expressed as soluble form in E. coli from a PCR-synthesized gene is catalytically and functionally active.     

Multiple translational products from a Mycoplasma hyorhinis gene expressed in Escherichia coli.

We analyzed protein expression from a cloned Mycoplasma hyorhinis genomic fragment that produces in Escherichia coli a set of related polypeptides of 110, 100, 65, and 55 kilodaltons from a coding region of just over 3.0 kilobases. Expression of these multiple products resulted from a mechanism operating at the translational level but not from truncation at UGA termination codons, which are known to encode tryptophan in several mycoplasma species. The structural relatedness of the proteins was demonstrated by two-dimensional tryptic peptic mapping, but their generation by posttranslational processing was ruled out by pulse-chase labeling analysis. Examination of proteins expressed from plasmid constructs and tryptic peptide analysis of these polypeptides and the original set of proteins revealed that they share carboxy-terminal regions, an observation inconsistent with truncation at UGA codons. Expression of proteins from this cloned fragment was not dependent on vector sequences and was observed when the coding region was placed under control of a T7 promoter, suggesting that all products were translated from a single message. Expression of related products in mycoplasmas was examined by immunoblot analysis of M. hyorhinis proteins with antiserum against overexpressed recombinant proteins. A single 115-kilodalton mycoplasma protein was detected, which is larger than any of the related proteins expressed in E. coli. Our analysis indicated that translation initiation sites are used in E. coli that are not active in mycoplasmas, thereby defining differences between the translational regulatory signals of mycoplasmas and eubacteria.     

Expression of a biologically active diphtheria toxin fragment B in Escherichia coli

The toxB gene of Corynebacterium diphtheriae bacteriophage β encoding the B fragment of diphtheria toxin was cloned into an inducible expression vector. When expressed In Escherichia coli, fragment B was not proteolysed and was indistinguishable, by immunological criteria, from wild-type C. diphthsriae derived fragment B. Soluble fragment B was partially purified from the cytoplasm by saline precipitation steps and was shown to compete with the wild-type diphtheria toxin for binding to receptors of sensitive eukaryotic cells. A complete diphtheria toxin was reconstituted by formation of the disulphide bridge between purified fragment A and recombinant fragment B, which migrates at the expected Mr on Western blots and which was able to block protein synthesis by ADP-ribosylation of elongation factor–2, thereby indicating that the recombinant fragment B had retained its biological activity.     

Expression of a synthetic gene encoding canine milk lysozyme in Escherichia coli and characterization of the expressed protein.

A high-expression plasmid of the canine milk lysozyme, which belongs to the family of calcium-binding lysozymes, was constructed in order to study its physico-chemical properties. Because the cDNA sequence of the protein has not yet been determined, a 400 base-pair gene encoding canine milk lysozyme was first designed on the basis of the known amino acid sequence. The gene was constructed by an enzymatic assembly of 21 chemically synthesized oligonucleotides and inserted into an Escherichia coli expression vector by stepwise ligation. The expression plasmid thus constructed was transformed into BL21(DE3)/pLysS cells. The gene product accumulated as inclusion bodies in an insoluble fraction. Recombinant canine milk lysozyme was obtained by purification and refolding of the product and showed the same characteristics in terms of bacteriolytic activity and far- and near-UV circular dichroism spectra as the authentic protein. The NMR spectra of refolded lysozyme were also characteristic of a native globular protein. It was concluded that recombinant canine milk lysozyme was folded into the correct native structure. Moreover, the thermal unfolding profiles of the refolded recombinant lysozyme showed a stable equilibrium intermediate, indicating that the molten globule state of this protein was extraordinarily stable. This expression system of canine milk lysozyme will enable biophysical and structural studies of this protein to be extended.     

Comparison of the modes of action of a Vero toxin (a Shiga-like toxin) from Escherichia coli, of ricin, and of alpha-sarcin.

The modes of action of a Vero toxin (VT2 or Shiga-like toxin II) from Escherichia coli, of ricin, and of alpha-sarcin were compared. Elongation factor 1 (EF1) and GTP-dependent Phe-tRNA binding to ribosomes in the presence of poly(U) was inhibited by these three toxins, but EF1 and guanylyl (beta, gamma-methylene)-diphosphate-dependent Phe-tRNA binding was inhibited by alpha-sarcin only. EF1- and Phe-tRNA-dependent GTPase activity was inhibited by these toxins, but nonenzymatic binding of Phe-tRNA was not. The turnover rate of EF1 binding to ribosomes during Phe-tRNA binding was also decreased by these three toxins. The addition of EF1 recovered the inhibition of Phe-tRNA binding to ribosomes by VT2 and ricin but not by alpha-sarcin. The formation of and EF2- and GTP-dependent puromycin derivative of phenylalanine was inhibited slightly by the three toxins, indicating that translocation is not influenced significantly by them. EF2-dependent GTPase activity was stimulated by these toxins, and especially by VT2 and ricin. In contrast, the binding of EF2 to ribosomes was inhibited strongly by VT2 and ricin, and slightly by alpha-sarcin. The stimulation of EF2-dependent GTPase activity by the toxins may compensate for the decrease of EF2 binding to ribosomes which they caused during translocation. In total, these results indicate that VT2 and ricin inhibit protein synthesis through the disturbance of the turnover of EF1 binding to ribosomes during aminoacyl-tRNA binding to ribosomes, and that alpha-sarcin inhibits the synthesis through the inhibition of the binding of the complex of Phe-tRNA, EF1, and GTP to ribosomes.     

Isolation and characterization of biologically active murine interleukin-1 alpha derived from expression of a synthetic gene in Escherichia coli

A murine interleukin-1 alpha (mIL-1 alpha) gene coding for amino acids 115 to 270 of the precursor protein (Lomedico, P.T., Gubler, U., Hellmann, C.P., Dukovich, M., Giri, J.G., Pan, Y.E., Collier, K., Semionow, R., Chua, A.O. and Mizel, S.B. (1984) Nature 312, 458-462) was chemically synthesized and expressed in Escherichia coli. mIL-1 alpha, in the form of insoluble inclusion bodies, accounted for approx. 30% of total cellular protein produced by the recombinant strain. A simple isolation protocol was developed in which inclusion body material was first solubilized in 3 M guanidine hydrochloride, and the mIL-1 alpha was then simultaneously purified and allowed to fold to its active conformation by dialysis against distilled water. This procedure yielded pure, biologically active mIL-1 alpha with 41% recovery of the mIL-1 alpha present in the guanidine hydrochloride extract. The purified preparation had the expected amino acid composition, a molar absorptivity of 28,200 M-1.cm-1 and a pI of 5.2. No methionyl-mIL-1 alpha was detected by N-terminal sequence analysis, and the endotoxin level was less than 10 pg per micrograms of mIL-1 alpha. The specific biological activity was 3.10(7) units/mg in a co-mitogenic thymocyte proliferation assay. In addition to full-length mIL-1 alpha, the preparation contained N-terminally truncated mIL-1 alpha species (mainly des-4 and des-6 amino acid forms). The truncated species were isolated and found to have the same biological activity as the complete polypeptide. Thus, the active fragment of mIL-1 alpha appears to consist of a proteinase-sensitive N-terminal region which is not essential for activity, and a proteinase-resistant core which harbors the essential determinants of its cytokine function.     

Purification and characterization of a plant antimicrobial peptide expressed in Escherichia coli

MiAMP1 is a low-molecular-weight, cysteine-rich, antimicrobial peptide isolated from the nut kernel of Macadamia integrifolia. A DNA sequence encoding MiAMP1 with an additional ATG start codon was cloned into a modified pET vector under the control of the T7 RNA polymerase promoter. The pET vector was cotransformed together with the vector pSB161, which expresses a rare arginine tRNA. The peptide was readily isolated in high yield from the insoluble fraction of the Escherichia coli extract. The purified peptide was shown to have an identical molecular weight to the native peptide by mass spectroscopy indicating that the N-terminal methionine had been cleaved. Analysis by NMR spectroscopy indicated that the refolded recombinant peptide had a similar overall three-dimensional structure to that of the native peptide. The peptide inhibited the growth of phytopathogenic fungi in vitro in a similar manner to the native peptide. To our knowledge, MiAMP1 is the first antimicrobial peptide from plants to be functionally expressed in E. coli. This will permit a detailed structure-function analysis of the peptide and studies of its mode of action on phytopathogens.     

Protein secretion controlled by a synthetic gene in Escherichia coli

The inability of Escherichia coli to secrete proteins in growth medium is one of the major drawbacks in its use in genetic engineering. A synthetic gene, homologous to the one coding for the kil peptide of pColE1, was made and cloned under the control of the lac promoter, in order to obtain the inducible secretion of homologous or heterologous proteins by E. coli. The efficiency of this synthetic gene to promote secretion was assayed by analysing the production and secretion of two proteins, the R-TEM1 beta-lactamase, and the alpha-amylase from Bacillus licheniformis. This latter protein was expressed in E. coli from its gene either on the same plasmid as the kil gene or on a different plasmid. The primary effect of the induction of the kil gene is the overproduction of the secreted proteins. When expressed at a high level, the kil gene promotes the overproduction of all periplasmic proteins and the total secretion in the culture medium of both the beta-lactamase or the alpha-amylase. This secretion is semi-selective for most periplasmic proteins are not secreted. The kil peptide induces the secretion of homologous or heterologous proteins in two steps, first acting on the cytoplasmic membrane, then permeabilizing the outer membrane. This system, which is now being assayed at the fermentor scale, is the first example of using a synthetic gene to engineer a new property into a bacterial strain.     

Chemokines derived from soluble fusion proteins expressed in Escherichia coli are biologically active

Chemokines are a class of low molecular weight proteins that are involved in leukocytes trafficking. Due to their involvement in recruiting immune cells to sites of inflammation, chemokines, and chemokine receptors have become an attractive class of therapeutic targets. However, when expressed in Escherichia coli chemokines are poorly soluble and accumulate in inclusion bodies. Several purification methods have been described but involve time-consuming refolding, buffer exchange, and purification steps that complicate expression of these proteins. Here, we describe a simple and reliable method to express chemokines as fusions to the protein NusA. The fusion proteins were largely found in the soluble fraction and could be readily purified in a single step. Proteolytic cleavage was used to obtain soluble recombinant chemokines that were found to be very active in a novel in vitro chemotaxis assays. This method could be applied to several alpha and beta human chemokines, suggesting that it is generally applicable to this class of proteins.     

Genetic diversity of heat-labile toxin expressed by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains isolated from humans

The natural diversity of the elt operons, encoding the heat-labile toxin LT-I (LT), carried by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains isolated from humans was investigated. For many years, LT was supposed to be represented by a rather conserved toxin, and one derivative, produced by the reference H10407 strain, was intensively studied either as a virulence factor or as a vaccine adjuvant. Amplicons encompassing the two LT-encoding genes (eltA and eltB) of 51 human-derived ETEC strains, either LT(+) (25 strains) only or LT(+)/ST(+) (26 strains), isolated from asymptomatic (24 strains) or diarrheic (27 strains) subjects, were subjected to restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and DNA sequencing. Seven polymorphic RFLP types of the H10407 strain were detected with six (BsaI, DdeI, HhaI, HincII, HphI, and MspI) restriction enzymes. Additionally, the single-nucleotide polymorphic analysis revealed 50 base changes in the elt operon, including 21 polymorphic sites at eltA and 9 at eltB. Based on the deduced amino acid sequences, 16 LT types were identified, including LT1, expressed by the H10407 strain and 23 other strains belonging to seven different serotypes, and LT2, expressed by 11 strains of six different serotypes. In vitro experiments carried out with purified toxins indicated that no significant differences in GM1-binding affinity could be detected among LT1, LT2, and LT4. However, LT4, but not other toxin types, showed reduced toxic activities measured either in vitro with cultured cells (Y-1 cells) or in vivo in rabbit ligated ileal loops. Collectively, these results indicate that the natural diversity of LTs produced by wild-type ETEC strains isolated from human hosts is considerably larger than previously assumed and may impact the pathogeneses of the strains and the epidemiology of the disease.