昆虫抗冻蛋白基因的克隆与表达研究进展

产生抗冻蛋白(antifreeze protein,AFP)是许多昆虫抵御寒冷的一种重要机制。昆虫抗冻蛋白基因的克隆和表达是研究抗冻蛋白活性和功能的主要途径。文章归纳GenBank所登录的昆虫抗冻蛋白基因及其特点,总结昆虫抗冻蛋白基因的天然表达和基因工程表达方面尚未明确或需要克服的一些问题。目前在GenBank注册的昆虫抗冻蛋白基因约100个,集中于9种昆虫隶属鞘翅目3个科和鳞翅目1个科。昆虫抗冻蛋白基因具有多拷贝和多同种型(isoforms)的特点。昆虫抗冻蛋白的天然表达具有物种间和同种型间的多样性。基因工程表达昆虫抗冻蛋白需要克服表达量低活性不高的问题。对昆虫抗冻蛋白表达规律的研究有助于全面认识其功能。     

昆虫对低温的适应——抗冻蛋白研究进展

昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究主要在几种昆虫中展开,到目前为止已有二十多种昆虫抗冻蛋白被分离纯化。本文综述了关于昆虫抗冻蛋白的结构、组成、生物学活性及功能等方面的研究进展。昆虫抗冻蛋白的二级结构为β折叠和β转角,在其特殊的氨基酸序列结构中,半胱氨酸形成的二硫键对稳定其结构和活性起着很重要的作用。影响昆虫抗冻蛋白的因子,如活化蛋白及低分子量溶质的发现开辟了昆虫抗冻蛋白研究的新领域。     

昆虫抗冻蛋白的分离纯化及特性分析

昆虫抗冻蛋白具有很高的热滞活性,可保护机体免受结冰引起的伤害。昆虫抗冻蛋白的分离纯化多采用凝胶过滤层析、离子交换层析及HPLC等技术,已用于鱼类抗冻蛋白纯化的冰亲和纯化(IAP)技术也可考虑应用于昆虫抗冻蛋白的分离提纯。昆虫抗冻蛋白具有高活性,规则的一级结构及类似的冰晶结合表面等特性。     

昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究

抗冻蛋白是具有热滞活性,能结合并抑制冰晶生长和抑制冰的重结晶的一类蛋白质。近几年来,昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究取得了较快的发展,本文通过分析昆虫抗冻蛋白的结构特点、抗冻活性、作用机制,并讨论了抗冻蛋白在食品工业、医学、基因工程方面的应用。结果表明,昆虫抗冻蛋白虽然结构呈多样性,但有很多关键的残基具有保守性,对维持抗冻蛋白结构和功能的完整性发挥着重要的作用;抗冻蛋白是由多基因家簇编码的。其作用机制主要是吸附一抑制机制,抗冻蛋白依靠氢键吸附到冰晶格,抑制冰晶生长;昆虫抗冻蛋白的应用具有很广阔的前景。     

昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究进展

抗冻蛋白是一类与冰晶有亲合力,能够与冰晶结合并抑制冰晶生长的蛋白或糖蛋白。自20世纪60年代以来,研究人员已经分别从鱼类、昆虫、植物、真菌和细菌中发现多种抗冻蛋白。其中已知鱼类抗冻蛋白有5种,也是研究最详细的。但是,近几年来发现昆虫抗冻蛋白活性普遍比较高,因此受到研究人员重视,研究取得了较快的发展。主要讨论昆虫抗冻蛋白的结构特点、抗冻活性、作用机制和应用,并分析目前的研究现状提出一些待解决的问题,以期望对昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究进行比较系统化的整理。     

荒漠甲虫光滑鳖甲和小胸鳖甲抗冻蛋白基因及其3'-UTR的序列分析

拟步甲科昆虫光滑鳖甲Anatolica polita Kaszab和小胸鳖甲Microdera punctipennis Kaszab分别是新疆准噶尔盆地荒漠地区的广布种和特有种。它们的生活习性有很大差异,光滑鳖甲白天活动,且活动范围广,而小胸鳖甲喜阴避光夜晚活动,活动范围小,但在两者体内都发现有多拷贝的抗冻蛋白基因,并且抗冻蛋白基因在夏季也有表达。为了比较这两种昆虫的抗冻蛋白序列以及不同时期表达的抗冻蛋白序列的差异情况,本研究分别以光滑鳖甲和小胸鳖甲的过冬和夏季成虫为材料,根据已克隆的抗冻蛋白基因序列设计通用引物,扩增新的抗冻蛋白基因及其3'-非翻译区(3'-UTR)。序列分析结果表明,无论是冬季还是夏季表达的抗冻蛋白在两种昆虫中都具有拟步甲科昆虫抗冻蛋白的特点,即含有不同数量的"TCTXSXXCXXAX"12个氨基酸的重复序列;光滑鳖甲抗冻蛋白基因的变异性大于小胸鳖甲,并且在重复基序的保守位点都有突变现象。小胸鳖甲抗冻蛋白在C末端有较大变异。光滑鳖甲抗冻蛋白基因的3'-UTR区变异较大,而小胸鳖甲抗冻蛋白基因的3'-UTR区几乎没有变异。推测两种昆虫抗冻蛋白及抗冻蛋白基因3'-UTR的变异性可能与抗冻蛋白的表达调控以及昆虫对微环境的适应性有关。     

昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究进展

抗冻蛋白是具有热滞效应,能结合并抑制新的冰晶生长,能抑制冰的重结晶的一类蛋白质。近几年来,昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究取得了较快的发展,本文就昆虫抗冻蛋白的结构,活性的调控,功能与应用做一综述。     

准噶尔小胸鳖甲抗冻蛋白基因Mpafp149的生物信息学分析

利用生物信息学方法对准噶尔小胸鳖甲抗冻蛋白基因Mpafp149所编码蛋白MPAFP149进行分析,分别从氨基酸组成、理化性质、二三级结构和功能、进化关系等方面进行预测。结果表明MPAFP149与其他昆虫抗冻蛋白在氨基酸水平上具有79％的相似性,二级结构上预测其为水溶性蛋白,含有信号肽和跨膜区。三级结构上与黄粉虫抗冻蛋白YL-1具有较高的相似性,并且具有昆虫抗冻蛋白所特有的结构域。本研究为准噶尔小胸鳖甲抗冻蛋白功能的研究鉴定了基础。     

昆虫抗冻蛋白: 规则结构适应功能

抗冻蛋白在环境温度低于体液熔点时能够结合到生物体内的冰核表面,通过限制冰核生长和抑制冰晶重结晶而保护有机体免受结冰引起的伤害。与其他生物抗冻蛋白比较,昆虫抗冻蛋白有很强的活性,结构上具有显著特征,如一级结构规律重复,超二级结构为β-螺旋,可与冰晶发生相互作用,具有TXT基序等。该文综述了近年来关于昆虫抗冻蛋白的结构以及分子生物学等方面研究的新进展,讨论了其结构与功能的关系。     

洛氏脊漠甲抗冻蛋白基因的克隆、表达和功能检测

为了研究抗冻蛋白基因是否在新疆荒漠昆虫洛氏脊漠甲 Pterocoma loczyi 中存在,利用 RT-PCR 技术克隆获得了洛氏脊漠甲抗冻蛋白的 cDNA 片段,命名为 Plafp743。测序结果表明洛氏脊漠甲 Plafp743 所编码的蛋白质由 94 个氨基酸组成,蛋白序列呈现规则结构 CTX₁X₂X₃X₄CX₅X₆X₇X₈X ₉。利用原核表达载体构建重组质粒 pGEX-4T-1-Plafp743,转化 Escherichia coli BL21 进行融合蛋白表达,SDS-PAGE 结果表明抗冻蛋白PLAFP基因以可溶性融合蛋白形式表达,相对分子质量 36 kD。用 Glutathione Sepharose 4B 亲和柱对表达蛋白进行纯化后,通过赤翅甲 Dendroides canadensis 抗冻蛋白的小鼠抗血清进行 Western blot 分析,结果表明纯化的 GST-PLAFP 融合蛋白与赤翅甲抗血清能够发生特异性的免疫反应。大肠杆菌的低温抗冻保护实验结果证明,30 μg/mL 的 GST-PLAFP 在-6℃ 对细菌具有显著的保护作用,且随着抗冻蛋白浓度的增加,抗冻保护作用的效 果也随之增加。本研究首次报道了从荒漠昆虫洛氏脊漠甲扩增得到抗冻蛋白基因,提示抗冻蛋白可能是荒漠昆虫普遍采取的过冬生存策略,为进一步开发利用昆虫抗冻蛋白奠定了基础。     

Partitioning of fish and insect antifreeze proteins into ice suggests they bind with comparable affinity

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) inhibit the growth of ice by binding to the surface of ice crystals, preventing the addition of water molecules to cause a local depression of the freezing point. AFPs from insects are much more effective at depressing the freezing point than fish AFPs. Here, we have investigated the possibility that insect AFPs bind more avidly to ice than fish AFPs. Because it is not possible to directly measure the affinity of an AFP for ice, we have assessed binding indirectly by examining the partitioning of proteins into a slowly growing ice hemisphere. AFP molecules adsorbed to the surface and became incorporated into the ice as they were overgrown. Solutes, including non-AFPs, were very efficiently excluded from ice, whereas AFPs became incorporated into ice at a concentration roughly equal to that of the original solution, and this was independent of the AFP concentration in the range (submillimolar) tested. Despite their >10-fold difference in antifreeze activity, fish and insect AFPs partitioned into ice to a similar degree, suggesting that insect AFPs do not bind to ice with appreciably higher affinity. Additionally, we have demonstrated that steric mutations on the ice binding surface that decrease the antifreeze activity of an AFP also reduce its inclusion into ice, supporting the validity of using partitioning measurements to assess a protein's affinity for ice.     

昆虫抗冻蛋白的研究进展

热滞效应(Tberm Hysteresis Action)最早在昆虫研究中发现,后来研究表明,它是抗冻蛋白(Antifreeze Proteins,AFPs)的一种基本性质。和鱼类,植物AFPs相比,昆虫AFPs具有更高 的热滞活性和独特的化学结构特征。昆虫AFPs在昆虫抗冻生理过程中起着相当重要的作用,表现在以下三个方面：①抑制一些冰晶形成;②提高冰冻耐受性;③可能参与水分平衡过程。光周期,气温和湿度是调控AFPs生物合成与降解的三种外部因子,而体内激素的变化可能是直接调节脂肪体合成AFPs的内部因子。     

Systematic size study of an insect antifreeze protein and its interaction with ice

Because of their remarkable ability to depress the freezing point of aqueous solutions, antifreeze proteins (AFPs) play a critical role in helping many organisms survive subzero temperatures. The beta-helical insect AFP structures solved to date, consisting of multiple repeating circular loops or coils, are perhaps the most regular protein structures discovered thus far. Taking an exceptional advantage of the unusually high structural regularity of insect AFPs, we have employed both semiempirical and quantum mechanics computational approaches to systematically investigate the relationship between the number of AFP coils and the AFP-ice interaction energy, an indicator of antifreeze activity. We generated a series of AFP models with varying numbers of 12-residue coils (sequence TCTxSxxCxxAx) and calculated their interaction energies with ice. Using several independent computational methods, we found that the AFP-ice interaction energy increased as the number of coils increased, until an upper bound was reached. The increase of interaction energy was significant for each of the first five coils, and there was a clear synergism that gradually diminished and even decreased with further increase of the number of coils. Our results are in excellent agreement with the recently reported experimental observations.     

抗冻蛋白研究进展(英文)

很多越冬的生物会产生抗冻蛋白,这些抗冻蛋白能够吸附到冰晶的表面改变冰晶形态并抑制冰晶的生长.抗冻蛋白在很多生物体内都被发现,不同的抗冻蛋白结构差异非常大.目前的一些研究揭示了几种抗冻蛋白的结构,并提出了抗冻蛋白与冰晶的结合模型,但是还没有一种机制能解释所有抗冻蛋白的作用机理.抗冻蛋白能被广泛的应用到农业、水产业和低温储藏器官、组织和细胞,利用转基因技术提高植物的抗冻性具有重要应用价值.而抗冻蛋白基因的表达调控则有待进一步阐明.     

抗寒类蛋白与冷驯化诱发昆虫耐寒性研究进展

昆虫是变温动物,温度对其生长发育、基本行为及进化途径都会产生很大的影响,种群的繁衍面临如何安全度过漫长而寒冷的冬季的挑战。通过长时间的进化,昆虫获得一系列完整的耐寒策略。绝大多数的昆虫都是耐寒昆虫,在陆地寒冷温度刺激下,昆虫受抗寒基因的调控,体内产生大量抗寒物质,如海藻糖、甘油、山梨醇、抗冻蛋白、热激蛋白等,提高昆虫的耐寒能力,使其得以在低温寒冷的条件下成功越冬。同样,经过冷驯化后的昆虫能显著提高昆虫的耐寒力。近年来,关于昆虫耐寒性、抗寒类蛋白的研究不断开展,研究内容涉及昆虫的耐寒性、抗寒基因HSPs和AFPs的调控、冷驯化诱导抗寒等方面。本文综述了昆虫耐寒性、主要耐寒策略及冷驯化诱发昆虫耐寒性增强等研究内容。有助于全面认识昆虫耐寒性及其作用机制,为天敌昆虫低温储存和提高生物防治等应用打下坚实的基础。     

Structural characteristics of a novel antifreeze protein from the longhorn beetle Rhagium inquisitor

Antifreeze proteins (AFPs) are characterized by their capacity to inhibit the growth of ice and are produced by a variety of polar fish, terrestrial arthropods and other organisms inhabiting cold environments. This capacity reflects their role as stabilizers of supercooled body fluids. The longhorn beetle Rhagium inquisitor is known to express AFPs in its body fluids. In this work we report on the primary structure and structural characteristics of a 12.8 kDa AFP from this beetle (RiAFP). It has a high capacity to evoke antifreeze activity as compared to other known insect AFPs and it is structurally unique in several aspects. In contrast to the high content of disulfide bond-formation observed in other coleopteran AFPs, RiAFP contains only a single such bond. Six internal repeat segments of a thirteen residue repeat pattern is irregularly spaced apart throughout its sequence. The central part of these repeat segments is preserved as TxTxTxT, which is effectively an expansion of the TxT ice-binding motif found in the AFPs of several known insect AFPs.     

Why does insect antifreeze protein from Tenebrio molitor produce pyramidal ice crystallites?

The antifreeze protein (AFP) reduces the growth rates of the ice crystal facets. In that process the ice morphology undergoes a modification. An AFP-induced surface pinning mechanism, through matching of periodic bond chains in two dimensions, enables two-dimensional regular ice-binding surfaces (IBSs) of the insect AFPs to engage a certain class of ice surfaces, called primary surfaces. They are kinetically stable surfaces with unambiguous and predetermined orientations. In this work, the orientations and molecular compositions of the primary ice surfaces that undergo growth rate reduction by the insect AFPs are obtained from first principles. Besides the basal face and primary prism, the ice surfaces engaged by insect AFPs include the specific ice pyramids produced by the insect AFP Tenebrio molitor (TmAFP). TmAFP-induced pyramids differ fundamentally from the ice pyramids produced by fish AFPs and antifreeze protein glycoproteins (AFPGs) as regards the ice surface configurations and the mode of interaction with the protein IBS. The molecular compositions of the TmAFP-induced pyramids are strongly bonded in two dimensions and have the constant face indices (101). In contrast, the molecular composition of the ice pyramids produced by fish AFPs and AFPGs are strongly bonded in only one direction and have variable face indices (h 0 l), none of which equal (101). The thus far puzzling behavior of the TmAFP in producing pyramidal crystallites is fully explained in agreement with experiment.