High-level expression and single-step purification of human tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase.

Human trpS gene was cloned into the expression vector pET-24a(+) to yield pET-24a(+)-HTrpRS, which could direct the synthesis of a mammalian derived protein in Escherichia coli BL21-CodonPlus(DE3)-RIL. The vector allows overproduction and single-step purification of His(6)-tagged human tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase by the facilitation of metal (Ni(2+)) chelate affinity chromatography. The expression level of human TrpRS was about 40% of total cell proteins after isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactoside induction. The overproduced human TrpRS-His(6) could be purified to homogeneity within 2 h and about 24 mg purified enzyme could be obtained from 400 ml cell culture. The His(6) tag at C terminus had little effect on the binding ability of its substrates.     

Limited proteolysis of the tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase.

Earlier studies have shown that native tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase from beef pancreas is composed of two apparently identical subunits having a molecular weight of 60000 plus or minus 2000 each. Incubation of the pruified enzyme with trypsin under restrictive conditions results in splitting of each subunit to form an enzymatically inactive polypeptide chain of mol. wt 24500 plus or minus 1500. During proteolysis, two distinct intermediate forms of mol. wt 51000 plus or minus 2000 and 40000 plus or minus 2000 and fragments of mol. wt 14000 plus or minus 2500 are formed. The presence of substrates, viz. ATP, tryptophan or tryptophanyl adenylate, decreases the rate of proteolysis. However, a band pattern monitored by acrylamide gel electrophoresis is qualitatively indistinguishable from that obtained in the absence of substrates. Native and trypsin-modified subunits (the latter having a molecular weight of 24500) have been maleylated, reduced, carbosymethylated and subjected to exhaustive digestion by trypsin followed by peptide mapping. Comparison of the finger prints has shown that the trypsin-modified subunit represents a polypeptide with lowered content of dicarboxylic amino acids. That the number of peptides revealed after complete proteolysis of native and trypsin-modified subunits does not favour the presence of long repetitive sequences in each subunit, is at variance with some bacterial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Study of the fluorescence polarisation of 1-anilino-8-napthalene sulphonate adsorbed on the dimeric tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase, indicates that the molecule behaves as a complete entity in Brownian rotation. The trypsin-resistant end products, composed of two types of polypeptides (mol. wts 24500 and 14000), remain associated with each other. From the mol. wt of this associate it follows that each fragment is present in the associate in duplicate. When the purification procedure was carried out in the absence of a protease inhibitor, the active modified enzyme form was obtained. As judged from the molecular weight values, it is composed of two equal subunits corresponding to one of the products of limited proteolysis. The data presented are compatible with compact three-dimensional structure of tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase having very limited regions exposed to exogenous or endogenous proteolysis.     

Snake venom phosphodiesterase: simple purification with Blue Sepharose and its application to poly(ADP-ribose) study.

A rapid method of purifying snake venom phosphodiesterase has been developed using Blue Sepharose or blue dextran/Sepharose as an affinity adsorbent. A sixty-fold purification of the enzyme from commercial preparations is achieved in a single step with a yield of 60%. The purified enzyme preparation is essentially free from phosphatase activities and exhibits a major protein band on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Chain length analysis of poly(ADP-ribose) exemplifies the usefulness of this technique.     

Purification of acid ethanol-extracted human lymphoid interferons by Blue Sepharose chromatography.

Human leukocyte and lymphoblastoid (Namalva) interferons were purified by a modified acid ethanol extraction procedure and chromatography of the dilute ethanolic interferon solution on Blue Sepharose. Both interferons were purified more than 1000-fold, with recoveries ranging from 35 to 40%.     

Purification of the T4 DNA ligase by Blue Sepharose chromatography

T4 DNA ligase catalyzes the formation of phosphodiester bonds between adjacent 5′-phosphoryl and 3′-hydroxyl ends in nicked duplex DNA (1). In addition, it catalyzes the joining of duplex DNA molecules at completely base-paired ends (2). These activities of T4 DNA ligase have been used to synthesize DNA with defined sequences and to construct recombinant DNA molecules in vitro. For these purposes, the highly purified preparation of T4 DNA ligase is necessary. In this paper, we report a purification method which reproducibly yields highly purified preparation. Blue Sepharose CL-6B chromatography was introduced at the last step of the purification.     

Overproduction and purification of lysyl-tRNA synthetase encoded by the herC gene of E coli.

Lysyl-tRNA synthetases are synthesized from two distinct genes in E coli, lysS and lysU, but neither gene product has been purified distinctively by using overproducing systems. The lysS gene has been identified by a herC mutation which restores maintenance of the mutant ColE1 replicon. The herC gene product was overproduced by using a tac promoter fusion and purified to homogeneity. The purified HerC protein possesses a lysyl-tRNA synthetase activity as predicted by the sequence identity of herC to lysS. The procedure is useful for rapid mass-scale purification of lysyl-tRNA synthetase.     

Purification of human alpha-2-macroglobulin by chromatography on Cibacron Blue Sepharose.

A simple and efficient procedure has been devised for the isolation of α-2-macroglobulin from human plasma (type 1-1 haptoglobulin). The primary step is gel filtration and affinity chromatography on Cibacron Blue Sepharose, which selectively removes albumin and retards lipoproteins and γ-globulin, while effecting the molecular sieving of the remainder of the plasma proteins. This results in the separation of about 40% of the α-2-macroglobulin as a homogeneous component. A second step, gel filtration on Ultrogel AcA 22, may be utilized to separate α-2-macroglobulin in contaminated fractions obtained after Cibacron Blue Sepharose chromatography.     

An E. coli aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase can substitute for yeast mitochondrial enzyme function in vivo

We have investigated the function of an E. coli aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase in S. cerevisiae strains that are respiration-deficient because of a mutation or a gene disruption in the nuclear encoded gene for the mitochondrial tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase. Although the yeast mitochondrial and E. coli tyrosine tRNAs differ significantly in sequence, expression of the E. coli tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase from a gene fusion restores respiration. The fusion gene contains a presumptive sequence for mitochondrial import from the mitochondrial tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase gene fused to the E. coli coding region. The fusion protein is incorporated into mitochondria. This incorporation and the rescue of the respiratory defect require the presumptive sequence for mitochondrial import. These experiments suggest a more limited definition of the identity of a tyrosine tRNA.     

Rapid large-scale purification of pig heart nucleoside diphosphate kinase by affinity chromatography on Cibacron Blue 3G-A Sepharose

A rapid procedure for the large-scale purification of pig heart nucleoside diphosphate kinase is described. The purification procedure involves extraction of the enzyme, absorption on cibacron Blue 3G-A Sepharose, elution with ATP, ammonium sulfate precipitation, heat treatment, and rechromatography on Cibacron Blue 3G-A Sepharose. Typically, 10–12 mg of pure nucleoside diphosphate kinase is obtained from 1 kg of heart muscle (50% yield), with a purification factor of 1200 over the extract. The specific activity is 1500 units/mg at 25°C with 8-bromoinosine 5′-diphosphate as acceptor nucleotide. This method may be easily scaled up.     

The ATP synthetase of Escherichia coli K12: purification of the enzyme and reconstitution of energy-transducing activities.

The ATP synthetase of Escherichia coli K12 was purified by a simple procedure. The dicyclohexylcarbodiimide-sensitive ATPase activity was enriched 21-fold. The ATP synthetase preparation contained the eight polypeptides (alpha, beta, gamma, a,delta, b,espilon, c) of the enzyme and a residual contamination (4% of the total protein) as shown by dodecylsulfate/polyacrylamide electrophoresis. The polypeptide c was specifically labelled with [14C]dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. Energy-transducing activities were reconstituted from soybean phospholipids and the purified enzyme. The proteoliposomes exhibited a significantly higher ATP-32Pi exchange activity and a higher proton-translocating activity as compared to the untreated membranes.     

Cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase: determination of the last E. coli aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase primary structure.

The gene coding for E. coli cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase (cysS) was isolated by complementation of a strain deficient in cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase activity at high temperature (43 degrees C). Sequencing of a 2.1 kbp DNA fragment revealed an open reading frame of 1383 bp coding for a protein of 461 amino acid residues with a Mr of 52,280, a value in close agreement with that observed for the purified protein, which behaves as a monomer. The sequence of CysRS bears the canonical His-Ile- Gly -His (HIGH) and Lys-Met-Ser-Lys-Ser (KMSKS) motifs characteristic of the group of enzymes containing a Rossmann fold; furthermore, it shows striking homologies with MetRS (an homodimer of 677 residues) and to a lesser extent with Ile-, Leu-, and ValRS (monomers of 939, 860, and 951 residues respectively). With its monomeric state and smaller size, CysRS is probably more closely related to the primordial aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase from which all have diverged.     

Synthesis and characterization of a novel chitosan based E. coli cytosine deaminase nanocomposite for potential application in prodrug enzyme therapy

Cytosine deaminase is a non-mammalian enzyme of widespread interest for prodrug enzyme therapy due to its ability to convert prodrug 5-fluorocytosine into anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil. Cytosine deaminase enzyme has been purified to homogeneity from E. coli K-12 MTCC 1302 strain. K_m values for cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine were found to be 0.26 mM and 1.82 mM, respectively. We developed a chitosan-entrapped cytosine deaminase nanocomposite. Atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images showed an elongated sphere shape nanocomposite with an average size of 80 nm diameter. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction results confirmed gel formation and entrapment of cytosine deaminase within the nanocomposite. Sustained release of cytosine deaminase from the nanocomposite up to one week depicted its potential implication in prodrug inducted enzyme therapy.     

Overproduction, preparation of monoclonal antibodies and purification of E. coli asparagine synthetase A.

In order to explore the structure--function relationship of the Escherichia coli asparagine synthetase A it was necessary to devise a system for overexpression of the gene and purification of the gene product. The E. coli asparagine synthetase A structural gene was fused to the 3' end of the human carbonic anhydrase II structural gene and overexpressed in E. coli. The gene product, a 66 kDa fusion protein, which exhibited asparagine synthetase activity, was purified in a single step by affinity chromatography and used as the antigen for the production of monoclonal antibodies. The monoclonal antibodies were screened by ELISA. Colonies were chosen which were positive for purified fusion protein and negative for purified human carbonic anhydrase II. The E. coli asparagine synthetase A gene was then overexpressed and the gene product was used without purification for the final screen. The antibodies selected were used for immunoaffinity chromatography to purify the recombinant overexpressed E. coli asparagine synthetase A. Thus, a procedure is now available so that asparagine synthetase A can be purified to homogeneity in a single step.