Expression and localization of VCX／Y proteins and their possible in-volvement in regulation of ribosome assembly during spermatogenesis

Variable Charge X/Y (VCX/Y) is a human testis-specific gene family that localized on X and Y chromo-somes. In this study, VCY protein was expressed in E. coli in the form of glutathione-S-transferase (GST)fusion protein. With the purified fusion protein as antigen, the anti-GST-VCY antibody was generated andthe localization of VCY protein in human testis was determined by immunohistochemistry. In the testisseminiferous epithelium, VCY proteins were highly expressed in nuclei of germ cells. Using propidium io-dide staining and green fluorescent protein (GFP) tag technologies, VCY and VCX-8r proteins were mainlylocalized in the nucleoli of COS7 cells. In addition, the colocalization for VCY and VCX-8r in COS7 cellswas also observed. With VCY cDNA as bait, a cDNA fragment of acidic ribosomal protein PO was obtainedusing yeast two-hybrid system. All the information above indicates that VCX/Y protein family might beinvolved in the regulation of ribosome assembly during spermatogenesis.     

Fusion expression of mutated cecropin CMIV in E. coli

A cDNA coding mutated cecropin CMIV from Bombyx mori was synthesized according to its amino acid sequense using E .coli biased codons .The gene was cloned into the fusion expression vector pEZZ318 and was expressed in E .coli HB101.The fusion protein produced was purified by affinity chromatography to yield 26 mg/L fusion product .The anti-bacterial activities of recombinant cecropin CMIV were recovered after cleavage by chemical method.     

Arabidopsis Profilin Isoforms,PRF1 and PRF2 Show Distinctive Binding Activities and Subcellular Distributions

Profilin is an actin-binding protein that shows complex effects on the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton. There are five profilin isoforms in Arabidopsis thaliana L. However, it is still an open question whether these isoforms are functionally different. In the present study, two profilin isoforms from Arabidopsis, PRF1 and PRF2 were fused with green fuorescent protein （GFP） tag and expressed in Escherichia coil and A. thaliana in order to compare their biochemical properties in vitro and their cellular distributions in vivo. Biochemical analysis revealed that fusion proteins of GFP-PRF1 and GFP-PRF2 can bind to poly-L-proline and G-actin showing remarkable differences. GFP-PRF1 has much higher affinities for both poly-L-proline and G-actin compared with GFP-PRF2. Observations of living cells in stable transgenic A. thaliana lines revealed that 35S：：GFP-PRF1 formed a filamentous network, while 35S：：GFP-PRF2 formed polygonal meshes. Results from the treatment with latrunculin A and a subsequent recovery experiment indicated that filamentous alignment of GFP-PRF1 was likely associated with actin filaments. However, GFP-PRF2 localized to polygonal meshes resembling the endoplasmic reticulum. Our results provide evidence that Arabidopsis profllin isoforms PRF1 and PRF2 have different biochemical affinities for poly-L-proline and G-actin, and show distinctive Iocalizations in living cells. These data suggest that PRF1 and PRF2 are functionally different isoforms.     

Immunogenicity Analysis of Prokaryotic Expression Products of Kaposi's Sarcoma Associated Herpesvirus orf65

To purify the protein encoding the small capsid protein (SCP) of KSHV and analyze its immunogenicity, the carboxyl terminus of orf65 of Kaposi's sarcoma associated-herpesvirus (KSHV) was expressed in a prokaryotic expression system. The expression of recombinant E. coli containing pQE-80L-orf65 was induced by isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) and the fusion protein was purified by chromatography. The expressed protein and its purified product were identified by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and showed that 9 kDa was the expected size of the purified orf65 protein. The antiserum was produced in rabbit which was immunized by purified orf65 protein. An ELISA assay was established to analyze the immunogenicity of the purified orf65 protein. The ELISA analysis demonstrated that orf65 protein has strong immune activity, and the immune activity of polyclonal antibody against orf65 was more than 4 fold higher than that in the serum of the non-immunized rabbit. These results demonstrate that purified orf65 protein has very strong immunogenicity and can be used in screening KSHV infection in the general population using ELISA.     

Construction,expression and characterization of the engineered antibody against tumor surface antigen,p185^c—erbB—2

The c-erbB-2 proto-oncogene encodes a 185kD protein p185,which belongs to epidermal growth factor receptor family.Amplification of this gene has been shown to correlate with poor clinical prognosis for certain cancer patients.The monoclonal antibody A21 which directed against p185 specifically inhibits proliferation of tumor cells overexpressing p185,hence allows it to be a candidate for targeted therapy.In order to overcome several drawbacks of murine MAb,we cloned its VH and VL genes and constructed the single-chain FV(scFv)through a peptide linker.The recombinant scFv A21 was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by the affinity column.Subsequently it was characterized by ELISA,Western blot,cell immunohistochemistry and FACS.All these assays showed the binding activity to extracellular domain(ECD)of p185.Based on those properties of scFvA21,we further constructed the scFv-Fc fusion molecule with a homodimer form and the recombinant product was expressed in mammalian cells.In a series of subsequent analysis this fusion protein showed identical antigen binding site and activity with the parent antibody.These anti-p185 engineered antibodies have promised to be further modified as a tumor targeting drugs,with a view of application in the diagnosis and treatment of human breast cancer.     

Overexpression of soluble human thymosin alpha 1 in Escherichia coli

Synthesized gene of human thymosin alpha 1 (Tα1) was inserted into pET-28a, pET-9c,pThioHis B, pGEX-2T or pBV222 and then inductively expressed in strains of Escherichia coll. Among the five expression systems, the BL21/pET-28a system provides the highest expression level of fusion protein in a soluble form, which is up to 70% of total expressed bacterial proteins as visualized by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The resulting fusion protein purified through nickel affinity chromatography accounts for 2.53% of the wet bacterial pellet weight and reaches 94.5% purity by SDS-PAGE. These results indicate the potential of this expression system for high-throughput production of recombinant Tα1.     

Photoconversion of Lysotracker Red to a green fluorescent molecule

Dear Editor： Lysotracker Red DND-99 （Invitrogen-Molecular Probes） is a fluorophore in the form of a conjugated multi-pyrrole ring structure containing a weakly basic amine that selectively accumulates in acidic compartments and exhibits red fluorescence （excitation： 577 nm, emission： 590 nm） （Figure 1A）. It is structurally related to Lysotracker Green （Figure 1B） but has an additional pyrrole ring in conjugation with the primary structure, which produces a longer wavelength emission. Lysotracker Red is commonly used in multicolor imaging studies as a lysosomal marker to determine intracellular localization of a protein of interest by fluorescence and confocal microscopy [1-5] and is recommended by the manufacturer for this application. While using Lysotracker Red to study the localization of a protein fused to green fluorescent protein （GFP）, we observed an additional strong green fluorescent signal that colocalized with Lysotracker Red. After careful examination, however, we noted that the added green signal appeared only after illumination of the cells by a standard 100W mercury epi-fluorescence light source equipped with a 560/40 excitation filter （Leica TX2）. Prior to exposing the field to broadband excitation light, it was possible to visualize by confocal scanning （488nm excitation line） cells that exclusively expressed GFP. Remarkably, after exposure to broadband excitation light, green fluorescence appeared in all cells irrespective of GFP expression, displayed signal intensity similar to that of GFP, and colocalized with Lysotracker Red （Figure S1）.[第一段]     

Monomeric G‐actin is uniformly distributed in pollen tubes and is rapidly redistributed via cytoplasmic streaming during pollen tube growth

Dynamic assembly and disassembly of the actin cytoskeleton has been implicated in the regulation of pollen germination and subsequent tube growth. It is widely accepted that actin filaments are arrayed into distinct structures within different regions of the pollen tube. Maintenance of the equilibrium between monomeric globular actin (G‐actin) and filamentous actin (F‐actin) is crucial for actin assembly and array construction, and the local concentration of G‐actin thus directly impacts actin assembly. The localization and dynamics of G‐actin in the pollen tube, however, remain to be determined conclusively. To address this question, we created a series of fusion proteins between green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the Arabidopsis reproductive actin ACT11. Expression of a fusion protein with GFP inserted after methionine at position 49 within the DNase I‐binding loop of ACT11 (GFP_Met49–ACT11) rescued the phenotypes in act11 mutants. Consistent with the notion that the majority of actin is in its monomeric form, GFP_Met49–ACT11 and GFP fusion proteins of four other reproductive actins generated with the same strategy do not obviously label filamentous structures. In further support of the functionality of these fusion proteins, we found that they can be incorporated into filamentous structures in jasplakinolide (Jasp)‐treated pollen tubes. Careful observations showed that G‐actin is distributed uniformly in the pollen tube and is rapidly redistributed via cytoplasmic streaming during pollen tube growth. Our study suggests that G‐actin is readily available in the cytoplasm to support continuous actin polymerization during rapid pollen tube growth.     

Tat 蛋白的PTD区段促进GFP蛋白进入骨髓瘤细胞SP2/0

随着生物工程技术的迅速发展 ,多肽与蛋白质类药物的增长速度相当可观 ,可是这些药物常因受到各种因素的影响而疗效偏低 ,其中生物膜的屏障作用是主要因素之一。近年来发现一种来源于人类免疫缺陷病毒ＨＩＶ 1Ｔａｔ(Ｔｒａｎｓ ａｃｔｉｖａ ｔｏｒ)蛋白的蛋白功能区 ,称之为ＰＴＤ区段 (Ｐｒｏｔｅｉｎｔｒａｎｓｄｕｃｔｉｏｎｄｏｍａｉｎ ,ＹＧＲＫＫＲＲＱＲＲＲ)的〔1 ,2〕,能够有效引导肽段或者蛋白质进入细胞 ,具有蛋白传送的功能〔3〕。 1988年Ｍａｕｒｉｃｅ和Ｐａｕｌ发现Ｔａｔ蛋白能够穿过细胞膜〔4〕 ;1994年Ｓｔｅｐｈｅｎ…     

Green fluorescent protein fusions to Arabidopsis fimbrin 1 for spatio-temporal imaging of F-actin dynamics in roots

The visualization of green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusions with microtubule or actin filament (F-actin) binding proteins has provided new insights into the function of the cytoskeleton during plant development. For studies on actin, GFP fusions to talin have been the most generally used reporters. Although GFP-Talin has allowed in vivo F-actin imaging in a variety of plant cells, its utility in monitoring F-actin in stably transformed plants is limited particularly in developing roots where interesting actin dependent cell processes are occurring. In this study, we created a variety of GFP fusions to Arabidopsis Fimbrin 1 (AtFim1) to explore their utility for in vivo F-actin imaging in root cells and to better understand the actin binding properties of AtFim1 in living plant cells. Translational fusions of GFP to full-length AtFim1 or to some truncated variants of AtFim1 showed filamentous labeling in transient expression assays. One truncated fimbrin-GFP fusion was capable of labeling distinct filaments in stably transformed Arabidopsis roots. The filaments decorated by this construct were highly dynamic in growing root hairs and elongating root cells and were sensitive to actin disrupting drugs. Therefore, the fimbrin-GFP reporters we describe in this study provide additional tools for studying the actin cytoskeleton during root cell development. Moreover, the localization of AtFim1-GFP offers insights into the regulation of actin organization in developing roots by this class of actin cross-linking proteins.     

绿色荧光蛋白的原核表达、纯化以及抗体制备

用PCR扩增出绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)基因,插入到pGEX-KG表达载体中,并将构建出的重组质粒命名为pKG- GFP。将重组载体导入大肠杆菌DH10β中,经IPTG诱导产生GST-GFP融合蛋白,同时以可溶蛋白和包涵体两种形式存在。 GST-GFP分子量大约为53kDa,与其理论值大小一致,用亲和层析以及凝血酶处理纯化GFP。纯化的产物经证实具有很好的 均一性。以GFP免疫新西兰家兔,制备多克隆抗体,Westernblotting测定抗血清效价。     

一种新型IIa类细菌素的克隆表达和活性鉴定

NB-C1为一种潜在的IIa类细菌素基因,为实现其在大肠杆菌中的高效可溶表达,首先构建了NB-C1蛋白与绿色荧光蛋白 (GFP) 的融合表达载体pIVEX 2.4d-GFP-NB-C1,然后将构建的表达载体转化大肠杆菌BL21(DE3) pLysS,经诱导表达后,重组蛋白GFP-NB-C1以可溶的形式存在于细胞内。经Ni-NTA亲和层析柱分离纯化后,重组融合蛋白的纯度大于95％,产量达36.1 mg/L。抑菌试验表明,纯化后的重组蛋白对单核细胞增生李斯特氏菌具有明显的抑制作用。     

Intracellular localization of the p35 subunit of murine IL-12

Production of interleukin-12 (IL-12), a heterodimer of p35 and p40 subunits, is limited by p35 expression. A long and a short murine p35 mRNA potentially encoding proteins differing in pre-sequence size are produced. Increased pre-sequence size could convert a cleaved signal peptide to an uncleaved signal peptide, raising the possibility that a membrane-bound form of p35 is produced. The intracellular localization of the p35 encoded by each mRNA isoform was determined by constructing cDNAs containing the long or short p35 cDNA isoform fused in-frame to a cDNA encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP). After transfection of a CV-1 African green monkey kidney cell line with the constructs, confocal microscopy and immunoblotting of extracted microsomal membranes demonstrated that the p35-GFP fusion protein encoded by the long or short mRNA accumulates in the Golgi apparatus as an endoglycosidase H-sensitive glycosylated integral membrane protein. In contrast, a p40-GFP fusion protein accumulates in the Golgi apparatus as a soluble protein. Since assembly of the p35 and p40 subunits to form bioactive IL-12 occurs in the ER, release of membrane-tethered IL-12 by proteolytic cleavage in a late Golgi or post-Golgi compartment may represent an as yet unidentified level at which bioactive IL-12 secretion is regulated.     

Production of fluorescent single-chain antibody fragments in Escherichia coli

We describe a novel vector-host system suitable for the efficient preparation of fluorescent single-chain antibody Fv fragments (scFv) in Escherichia coli. The previously described pscFv1F4 vector used for the bacterial expression of functional scFv to the E6 protein of human papillomavirus type 16 was modified by appending to its C-terminus the green fluorescent protein (GFP). The expression of the scFv1F4-GFP fusion proteins was monitored by analyzing of the typical GFP fluorescence of the transformed cells under UV illumination. The brightest signal was obtained when scFv1F4 was linked to the cycle 3 GFP variant (GFPuv) and expressed in the cytoplasm of AD494(DE3) bacteria under control of the arabinose promoter. Although the scFv1F4 expressed under these conditions did not contain disulfide bridges, about 1% of the molecules were able to bind antigen. Fluorescence analysis of antigen-coated agarose beads incubated with the cytoplasmic scFv-GFP complexes showed that a similar proportion of fusions retained both E6-binding and green-light-emitting activities. The scFv1F4-GFPuv molecules were purified by affinity chromatography and successfully used to detect viral E6 protein in transfected COS cells by fluorescence microscopy. When an anti-beta-galactosidase scFv, which had previously been adapted to cytoplasmic expression at high levels, was used in this system, it was possible to produce large amounts of functional fluorescent antibody fragments. This indicates that these labeled scFvs may have many applications in fluorescence-based single-step immunoassays.     

Expression of recombinant actin 5C from Drosophila in the methylotrophyc yeast Pichia pastoris

A system of expression for the foreign actin gene in yeast cells Pichia pastoris has been developed. As a target protein, the Drosophila cytoplasmic actin 5C, which has 90% homology to the β-actin of higher eukaryotes, was used. In the present work, in order to develop conditions for biosynthesis of the target protein in yeast cells and a purification procedure for the recombinant protein, a GFP-actin fusion protein containing green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a fusion tag was expressed and purified. The size and survival of P. pastoris cells producing recombinant protein were characterized and shown to depend on the accumulation of recombinant actin. The purified fusion protein was used to obtain a polyclonal antibody necessary for testing for recombinant actin.     

F-actin organization and pollen tube tip growth in Arabidopsis are dependent on the gametophyte-specific Armadillo repeat protein ARO1

The signal-mediated and spatially controlled assembly and dynamics of actin are crucial for maintaining shape, motility, and tip growth of eukaryotic cells. We report that a novel Armadillo repeat protein in Arabidopsis thaliana, ARMADILLO REPEAT ONLY1 (ARO1), is of fundamental importance for polar growth and F-actin organization in tip-growing pollen tubes. ARO1 is specifically expressed in the vegetative cell of pollen as well as in the egg cell. ARO1-GFP (for green fluorescent protein) fusion proteins accumulate most notably in pollen tube tips and partially colocalize with F-actin in the shank of pollen tubes. ARO1 knockout results in a highly disorganized actin cytoskeleton, growth depolarization, and ultimately tube growth arrest. Tip-localized ARO1-GFP is spatially shifted toward the future site of tip growth, indicating a role of ARO1 in the signaling network controlling tip growth and regulating actin organization. After the pollen tube discharges its contents into the receptive synergid, ARO1-GFP colocalizes with emerging F-actin structures near the site of sperm cell fusion, suggesting additional participation in the mechanism of sperm cell tracking toward the female gametes. The variable localization of ARO1 in the cytoplasm, the nucleus, and at the plasma membrane, however, indicates a multifunctional role like that of beta-catenin/Armadillo and the p120 catenins.     

Production of Functional Human Vitamin A Transporter/RBP Receptor (STRA6) for Structure Determination

STRA6 is a plasma membrane protein that mediates the transport of vitamin A, or retinol, from plasma retinol binding protein (RBP) into the cell. Mutations in human STRA6 are associated with Matthew-Wood syndrome, which is characterized by severe developmental defects. Despite the obvious importance of this protein to human health, little is known about its structure and mechanism of action. To overcome the difficulties frequently encountered with the production of membrane proteins for structural determination, STRA6 has been expressed in Pichia pastoris as a fusion to green fluorescent protein (GFP), a strategy which has been a critical first step in solving the crystal structures of several membrane proteins. STRA6-GFP was correctly targeted to the cell surface where it bound RBP. Here we report the large-scale expression, purification and characterisation of STRA6-GFP. One litre of culture, corresponding to 175 g cells, yielded about 1.5 mg of pure protein. The interaction between purified STRA6 and its ligand RBP was studied by surface plasmon resonance-based binding analysis. The interaction between STRA6 and RBP was not retinol-dependent and the binding data were consistent with a transient interaction of 1 mole RBP/mole STRA6.