Identification of genes encoding mouse oocyte secretory and transmembrane proteins by a signal sequence trap

The oocyte plays a key role in follicular development. At all stages of follicular development, oocytes interact with surrounding granulosa cells and promote their differentiation into the types of cells that support further oocyte growth and developmental competence. These interactions suggest the existence of an oocyte-granulosa cell regulatory loop that includes both secreted proteins and cell surface receptors on both cell types. Factors involved in the regulatory loop will therefore contain a signal sequence, which can be used to identify them through a signal sequence trap (SST). A screen of an oocyte SST library identified three classes of oocyte-expressed sequences: known mouse genes, sequences homologous to known mammalian genes, and novel sequences of unknown function. Many of the recovered genes may have roles in the oocyte-granulosa cell regulatory loop. For several of the known mouse genes, new roles in follicular development are implied by identification of their expression, for the first time, in the oocyte. The future characterization of novel sequences may lead to the identification of novel proteins participating in the regulatory loop.     

一个可能与T细胞发育相关的新的C2H2型锌指蛋白基因的克隆(英)

一些在组织和细胞分化中起重要作用的蛋白质包含锌指结构域.为了克隆分离和研究与造血细胞分化和发育成熟相关的蛋白基因,利用编码C2H2型锌指蛋白结构域中部分保守氨基酸序列设计简并引物,以骨髓cDNA为模板,进行PCR扩增,得到若干新的锌指蛋白基因EST.用其中一条为探针筛选人骨髓cDNA文库,获得了一个新的锌指蛋白基因全长cDNA,GenBank收录号为AF246126,长3 888 bp,包括一个完整阅读框,编码686个氨基酸,包括17个典型的和2个非典型的C2H2模体,命名为HZF2. RNA印迹、人多组织mRNA斑点杂交分析结果显示, 其在T淋巴细胞发育和定居的器官组织胸腺、淋巴结中有较高表达,在脾脏、胎肝有中度表达,在B淋巴细胞发育的骨髓中表达很低,在外周血几个淋巴细胞系中仅有极微量的表达,提示HZF2可能对于T淋巴细胞发育和增殖有重要功能.该基因也在脑组织的若干部位、胎盘及肾上腺有较高表达,在多种其他组织细胞有微量表达,说明其可能对维持这些组织细胞的生理功能也起一定作用.将编码HZF2读框的DNA顺序克隆到pEGFP-N1载体中,转染3T3细胞,证明表达的HZF2-GFP融合蛋白定位于细胞核,这与根据HZF2蛋白结构推测其可能作为DNA结合蛋白行使调节基因转录的功能是一致的.     

Anti-apoptotic genes of baculoviruses

Baculoviruses possess two different classes of genes with anti-apoptptic activity: p35 and iap. The p35 gene product (P35) is able to block apoptosis induced by a variety of stimuli in phylogenetically diverse organisms. P35 has recently been shown to be capable of inhibiting the ICE/ced-3 family of cysteine proteases, a family of enzymes which are implicated in cell death and which exhibit specificity for cleavage at aspartate residues. The products of the iap genes are a distinct class of proteins containing a carboxyl ring finger and tandem duplications of a unique motif known as the BIR motif. Homologues of the baculovirus iap genes have been identified in the human genome. Both classes of baculovirus anti-apoptotic genes will continue to be important tools in defining the pathways involved in apoptosis. Since our demonstration in 1991 that a baculovirus prevents host cells from undergoing apoptosis by expressing a gene known as p35(Clem et al., 1991), the study of baculovirus-induced apoptosis and the anti-apoptotic genes they possess has led to discoveries with far-reaching implications for viral pathogenesis, human disease, and the study of cell death. It is now known that a variety of eukaryotic viruses encode genes which allow them to control cellular apoptosis. Understanding the mechanism(s) by which these viral gene products act provides fundamental insights into the pathways regulating apoptosis. In this review, we discuss the inhibition of apoptosis by baculoviruses, concentrating mainly on the nature and mechanism of action of the two classes of baculovirus genes, p35 and iap, which are able to control apoptosis in a diversity ofeukaryotes.