EV71多表位抗原亲和纯化及类病毒颗粒胞外自组装

利用肠道病毒71型（EV71）衣壳蛋白优势表位肽段构建融合蛋白抗原能有效抑制病毒感染,有望成为继灭活病毒后更为安全有效的疫苗品种。该融合蛋白能通过原核体系有效表达但形成无序包涵体,采用常规层析介质难以实现目标蛋白与宿主杂质的有效分离,阻碍了对该抗原蛋白进行全面临床前活性及安全性评价。在原有融合蛋白抗原N端插入组氨酸标签,对形成的包涵体变性溶解后直接采用镍金属螯合亲和介质进行分离纯化,获得了纯度大于95%的抗原纯品,目标蛋白收率46.8%。采用透析方式脱除纯化样品中高浓度脲,发现直接透析至无脲的缓冲液中蛋白质大量沉淀,而先稀释至2mol/L脲的缓冲液中然后用G25脱盐柱完全脱除脲则无任何沉淀形成,获得近100%的蛋白质收率。透射电镜分析最终样品发现融合蛋白形成了10nm左右粒径均一的类病毒蛋白颗粒,且在pH 8.0的磷酸盐缓冲液中保持稳定。该研究结果为将EV71融合蛋白抗原发展为安全有效且低成本的手足口疫苗奠定了基础。     

多酶级联反应的构建及其在双官能团功能化学品合成中的应用

利用多酶级联催化反应合成精细化学品是近年来生物催化领域的研究热点。通过构建体外多酶级联体系,可以替代传统的化学合成法,实现多种双官能团功能化学品的绿色合成。本文系统介绍了多酶级联催化反应中不同级联方式的特点及其构建策略,总结了级联反应中元件酶常用的筛选方法、NAD(P)H和ATP等辅酶的再生策略及其在多酶级联反应中的应用,并且阐述了多酶级联催化反应体系在6种双官能团功能化学品,包括ω-氨基脂肪酸、烷基内酰胺、α,ω-二元羧酸、α,ω-二胺、α,ω-二醇、ω-氨基醇合成中的应用。     

利用自裂解多肽T2A在牛耳皮肤成纤维细胞中实现多基因共同表达

目的:探讨利用自裂解多肽2A构建的多顺反子载体能否在牛耳皮肤成纤维细胞中实现多基因的有效表达。方法:利用来自一点褐翅蛾病毒(TaV)的2A元件(T2A)将GFP和Neo基因连接到同一载体中,构建pCMV-GFP-T2A-Neo质粒,将其转染牛耳皮肤成纤维细胞,以FACS检测GFP基因的表达,RT-qPCR检测GFP、T2A和Neo的表达。结果:由T2A连接的GFP和Neo基因在mRNA水平上都有显著表达,且表达水平相当。结论:以T2A连接的基因在转入细胞后能正常翻译和表达,显示T2A在牛耳皮肤成纤维细胞中具有自裂解功能,可作为一种构建多顺反子载体的有效工具用于牛耳皮肤成纤维细胞的基因转移,为其将来在转基因牛研制中的应用奠定了基础。     

Enhancing the stability of trehalose synthase via SpyTag/SpyCatcher cyclization to improve its performance in industrial biocatalysts

SpyTag and SpyCatcher can spontaneously and rapidly conjugate to form an irreversible and stable covalent bond. The trehalose synthase (TreS) from Thermomonospora curvata was successfully cyclized after the fusion of a SpyTag to its C-terminus and SpyCatcher to the N-terminus. Cyclized TreS retained more than 85% of its activity at temperatures ranging from 40 to 50°C and more than 95% at a pH range of 8 to 10, while the wild type kept only 60 and 80% of its activity under the same conditions. These results demonstrated that cyclized TreS had better resistance to high temperature and alkali than the wild type. Furthermore, structural analysis revealed that cyclized TreS had better conformational stability and was able to fold correctly at a higher temperature than the wild type. Our findings indicate that the use of SpyTag and SpyCatcher to cyclize enzymes is a promising strategy to increase their stability.     

SpyTag/SpyCatcher cyclization and covalent immobilization in enhancing cephalosporin C acylase stability

A SpyRing cyclized cephalosporin C acylase (SRCCA) was obtained by fusing SpyTag and SpyCatcher to the N- and C- termini of cephalosporin C acylase (CCA), respectively. The results suggested that the introduction of the SpyRing (head-to-tail cyclization via SpyTag and SpyCatcher) did not affect the active center of the SRCCA (the specific activities of CCA and SRCCA are 15.71 U/mg and 13.11 U/mg, respectively). Also, the thermostability, organic solvents tolerance, and denaturant tolerance of the free enzyme SRCCA were improved. Since glyoxyl agarose carrier favors the covalent immobilization of enzymes through its surface regions having the highest lysine residues density, SRCCA permitted its multipoint and oriented immobilization because SpyRing is very rich in Lys residues, while CCA is quite poor in Lys residues and immobilization is via less enzyme support-bonds. When the enzyme loading amount was 10 mg/g carrier, the expressed activity of SRCCA was 22 % higher than that of CCA. The stability of the immobilized SRCCA was also significantly improved; the half-life of the immobilized SRCCA at 50 °C was 125 min, which was about 5 times the half-life of the immobilized CCA.     

A Split-Cre system designed to detect simultaneous expression of two genes based on SpyTag/SpyCatcher conjugation and Split-GFP dimerization

The Split-Cre system is a powerful tool for genetic manipulation and can be used to spatiotemporally control gene expression in vivo. However, the low activity of the reconstituted NCre/CCre recombinase in the Split-Cre system limits its application as an indicator of the simultaneous expression of a pair of genes of interest. Here, we describe two approaches for improving the activity of the Split-Cre system after Cre reconstitution based on self-associating split GFP (Split-GFP) and SpyTag/SpyCatcher conjugation. First, we created the Split-GFP-Cre system by constructing fusion proteins of NCre and CCre with the N-terminal and C-terminal subunits of GFP, respectively. Reconstitution of Cre by GFP-mediated dimerization of the two fusion proteins resulted in recombinase activity approaching that of full-length Cre in living cells. Second, to further increase recombinase activity at low levels of Split-Cre expression, the Split-Spy-GCre system was established by incorporating the sequences for SpyTag and SpyCatcher into the components of the Split-GFP-Cre system. As anticipated, covalent conjugation of the SpyTag and SpyCatcher segments improved Split-GFP dimerization to further increase Cre recombinase activity in living cells. The increased efficiency and robustness of this dual-split system (Split-Cre and Split-GFP) minimize the problems of incomplete double gene-specific KO or low labeling efficiency due to poor NCre/CCre recombinase activity. Thus, this Split-Spy-GCre system allows more precise gene manipulation of cell subpopulations, which will provide advanced analysis of genes and cell functions in complex tissue such as the immune system.     

A Tetrameric Model of the Dihydrolipoamide Dehydrogenase Component of the Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex: Construction and Evaluation by Molecular Modeling Techniques

On the basis of the homodimeric X-ray structure of dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase from Azotobacter vinelandii we demonstrate by protein modeling techniques that two dimeric units of this enzyme can associate to a tetrameric structure with intense contacts between the building blocks. Complementary structures of the respective other unit in the tetramer contribute to the active sites. The coenzyme FAD becomes shielded from the environment, thus its binding is stabilized. By energy minimization techniques binding energies and RMS-values were computed and the contact areas between the building blocks were determined to quantify the interaction. In the cell tetramerization of dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase will be realized upon its incorporation as an enzyme component into the pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex and will have consequences for the structure and subunit stoichiometry of the complex. Especially, the multiplicity of the three enzyme components, i.e. pyruvate dehydrogenase, dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase and dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase in the enzyme complex must be 24:24:24 instead of 24:24:12 assumed so far.Electronic Supplementary Material available.     

Construction and properties of pyruvate dehydrogenase complexes with up to nine lipoyl domains per lipoate acetyltransferase chain

The lipoate acetyltransferase (E2p) subunits of the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex of Escherichia coli have three tandemly repeated lipoyl domains, although net deletions of one or two has no apparent effect on the activity of the purified complexes. Plasmids containing IPTG-inducible aceEF-lpd operons, which encode PDH complexes bearing from one to nine lipoyl domains per E2p chain (24-216 per complex), were constructed. They were all capable of restoring the nutritional lesion of a strain lacking PDH complex and they all expressed active sedimentable multienzyme complexes having a relatively normal range of subunit stoichiometries. The extra domains are presumed to protrude from the E2p core (24-mer) without significantly affecting the assembly of the E1p and E3 subunits on the respective edges and faces of the cubic core. However, the catalytic activities of the overproduced complexes containing four to nine lipoyl domains per E2p chain were lower than those with fewer lipoyl domains. This could be due to under-lipoylation of the domains participating in catalysis and interference from unlipoylated domains.     

Red/ET重组在基因打靶载体快速构建中的应用

通过合理应用Red/ET重组技术实现基因打靶载体的快速构建。在Red/ET重组介导下,首先从基因组DNA中将靶基因片段亚克隆至打靶质粒载体中,随后将两端带有50 bp同源臂的抗性筛选基因插入并替换靶基因上的目标序列,如此两步操作即可完成一个传统型基因敲除打靶载体的构建;结合Cre-loxP系统,在传统型基因敲除打靶载体的基础上,经过再一轮的Red/ET重组就能够成功实现条件性基因敲除打靶载体的构建。整个实验过程不需要PCR扩增长、短臂序列,也不涉及酶切、连接反应,因此,不仅省时、省力,而且所构建的基因打靶载体序列准确,无突变。此实验方法的建立为加速后基因组时代的基因功能研究提供了一条捷径。     

人源HDAC1/2-RbAp46/48核心复合物三维空间构象的电子显微分析

HDAC1、HDAC2和RbAp46、RbAp48是许多重要功能复合物(如NuRD、Sin3等)的核心亚基.这4个亚基在空间上相互作用,形成一个具有去乙酰化酶活性的核心复合物.但该核心复合物的三维空间构象及其对去乙酰化、染色质重塑等功能的可能影响还所知甚少.本研究中,我们包装了含4个亚基的杆状病毒,利用昆虫细胞表达、纯化了HDAC1/2-RbAp46/48核心复合物.在此基础上,利用电子显微镜单颗粒分析方法对该去乙酰化酶核心复合物的三维结构进行了初步解析.结果表明,HDAC1、HDAC2、RbAp46和RbAp48可以形成一个较为稳定均一的复合物,但该复合物中各个亚基并不是以单拷贝、等比例形式存在的.该核心复合物呈现一个非对称的鞍型结构,其背部隆起,大致形成一个三角形,两边分别有一大一小的两翼,两翼中间有个凹槽,直径大约为6 nm,推测为该核心复合物与核小体的结合位置.本研究结果为了解HDAC1/2-RbAp46/48去乙酰化酶复合物各亚基的空间结构组成、与核小体和染色质的可能相互作用以及研究去乙酰化酶活性的作用机理等提供了有益的信息.     

Purification and characterization of a cellulolytic multienzyme complex produced by Neocallimastix patriciarum J11

Understanding the roles of the components of the multienzyme complex of the anaerobial cellulase system, acting on complex substrates, is crucial to the development of efficient cellulase systems for industrial applications such as converting lignocellulose to sugars for bioethanol production. In this study, we purified the multienzyme complex of Neocallimastix patriciarum J11 from a broth through cellulose affinity purification. The multienzyme complex is composed of at least 12 comprised proteins, based on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Eight of these constituents have demonstrated β-glucanase activity on zymogram analysis. The multienzyme complex contained scaffoldings that respond to the gathering of the cellulolytic components. The levels and subunit ratio of the multienzyme complex from N. patriciarum J11 might have been affected by their utilized carbon sources, whereas the components of the complexes were consistent. The trypsin-digested peptides of six proteins were matched to the sequences of cellulases originating from rumen fungi, based on identification through liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, revealing that at least three types of cellulase, including one endoglucanase and two exoglucanases, could be found in the multienzyme complex of N. patriciarum J11. The cellulolytic subunits could hydrolyze synergistically on both the internal bonds and the reducing and nonreducing ends of cellulose. Based on our research, our findings are the first to depict the composition of the multienzyme complex produced by N. patriciarum J11, and this complex is composed of scaffoldin and three types of cellulase.     

Efficient Intracellular Delivery of GFP by Homeodomains of Drosophila Fushi-tarazu and Engrailed Proteins

The 60 amino acid long homeodomain of Antennapedia (Antp), either alone or as a fusion protein with 30–40 amino acid long foreign polypeptides, has been reported to cross biological membranes by an energy- and receptor-protein-independent mechanism. Moreover, the 16 amino acid long third helix of the Antp homeodomain, so-called penetratin, possesses translocation properties when fused to fewer than 100 amino acids as well. These findings led us to study whether such a protein tansduction property is shared by other homeodomains. We report here that homeodomains of two homeoproteins, Fushi-tarazu and Engrailed, are able to transduce a 238 amino acid long green fluorescent protein into cultured cells as efficiently as other well-known protein transduction domains, such as an internal oligopeptide of Tat and penetratin. These findings suggest that such transduction activity of homeodomains might have some physiological roles and that it can be exploited for development of efficient transduction vectors for research use and protein therapy.     

SA/NaCS-PDMDAAC微胶囊固定化酵母细胞合成胞苷三磷酸

通过海藻酸钠/纤维素硫酸钠-聚二甲基二烯丙基氯化铵(SA/NaCS-PDMDAAC)微胶囊固定化酵母细胞将胞苷一磷酸(CMP)转化为胞苷三磷酸(CTP),考察了各种因素条件对CTP转化率的影响,以提高CTP的转化率.通过考察分批补料添加葡萄糖,固定化酵母量,CMP浓度等以达到提高CTP转化率的要求.结果在250 mL锥...