New approach to heterogeneous enzyme immunoassays using tagged enzyme-ligand conjugates

A new approach to heterogeneous enzyme immunoassays has been developed that uses a tag molecule linked to an enzyme-ligand conjugate. The insoluble phase is an insolubilized receptor to that tag. The antibody to the ligand, in addition to complexing either the free ligand or the one covalently linked to the tagged enzyme, also serves to mask the tag on the tagged enzyme-ligand conjugate so that it can no longer bind to the insolubilized receptor. Accordingly, the proportion of enzyme conjugate associated with the insoluble fraction is proportional to the amount of analyte ligand being assayed. This heterogeneous EIA based on the “antibody masking the tag” is called AMETIA. In the model system we use DNP-lysine as the ligand, β-galactosidase as the enzyme, biotin as the tag, and avidin immobilized to Sepharose as the insoluble receptor.     

Induction and Repression of β-Galactosidase Synthesis by Verticillum albo-atrum

Verticillium albo-atrum grew on lactose-containing culture media only after a prolonged lag phase. The intracellular specific activity of β-galactosidase [EC 3.2.1.23] increased 40–200 times during he lag phase. The β-galactosidase was induced by lactose and to a lesser degree by galactose. The appearance of the enzyme in lactose cultures was decreased by cycloheximide. Glucose and other readily metabolized carbon sources were effective repressors of β-galactosidase production. The production of β-galactosidase therefore appeared under control by lactose induction and catabolite repression.     

I-cell disease: Isoelectric focusing,concanavalin asepharose 4B binding and kinetic properties of human liver acid β-d-galactosidases

Isoelectric focusing of the acid β-d-galactosidases (β-d-galactoside galactohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.23) in normal crude liver supernatant fluids demonstrated multiple isoelectric forms in the pH range 4.58–5.15, while corresponding I-cell disease samples showed an absence of isoelectric forms in the pH range 4.99–5.15. Concanavalin A-Sepharose 4B chromatography of the I-cell disease mutant C.A. demonstrated a 31% and 37% decrease in the binding of 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-d-galactosidase and G_M1 β-d-galactosidase activities, respectively, when compared to normal samples. Isoelectric focusing profiles of the concanavalin A-Sepharose 4B α-methyl-d-mannoside effluents containing normal and I-cell disease acid α-d-galactosidase were generally similar, but the unadsorbed I-cell disease enzyme from concanavalin A-Sepharose 4B demonstrated more activity in the pH range 4.21–4.49 than normals. Normal and I-cell disease acid β-d-galactosidase “A” and “B”, separated by gel column chromatography, were found to have similar properties with respect to apparent molecular weights, pH vs. activity profiles and apparent K_m values for the 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-d-galactopyranoside, G_M1-ganglioside and asialofetuin (ASF) substrates. However, the apparent V values for the ICD samples were consistently reduced when compared to the results obtained with the corresponding normal fractions. The greatest decreases in apparent V were obtained for acid β-d-galactosidase activities in I-cell disease crude supernatant fluids, and for the separated I-cell disease “B” enzyme. The differences in the isoelectric focusing profiles, the altered binding to concanavalin A-Sepharose 4B, and the reduced V values with natural and synthetic substrates may be related to changes in carbohydrate composition of I-cell disease acid β-d-galactosidase.     

β-Galactosidases of Lilium pollen

Lily (Lilium auratum) pollen contains very high levels of β-galactosidase. There are three forms: β-galactosidase I and II differ in M_r, while β-galactosidase III is firmly bound in the pollen wall. The two cytoplasmic forms were separated and partially purified using a combination of chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, Sephadex G-200 and Sepharose 6B. Forms I and II appear to be glycoprotein in nature as shown by binding to Con A-Sepharose. The three enzymes were optimally active near pH 4, and all were inhibited by galactose and galactonolactone. The wall-bound enzyme, β-galactosidase III effectively hydrolysed nitrophenyl β-galactosidase but not lactose, and could not be released from the wall polysaccharide matrix by high salt concentrations or detergents. The total β-galactosidase activity of lily pollen remained constant during in vitro germination. A possible role for this enzyme may be in degradation of stylar arabinogalactans providing a carbon source for pollen tube nutrition.     

Genetic control of cell-type-specific levels of mouse beta-galactosidase.

Tissue analyses of mouse β-galactosidase (BGS) activity indicate previously unobserved genetic complexities. The existing genotypic classification of Bgs^h (high-activity) vs Bgs^d (diminished-activity) alleles has been based exclusively on strain differences in brain [Felton, J., Meisler, M., and Paigen, K. (1974). J. Biol. Chem.249, 3267–3272]. However, it now appears that other tissues in a strain with “high BGS” in brain can be relatively low in activity, or that tissues in a “low-BGS” strain can be relatively high. In addition, different cell types within a tissue (e.g., exocrine vs endocrine pancreas) can vary in BGS activity independently of each other. A given tissue ranges, among strains tested here, between 1.8- and 3.6-fold over the activity of the lowest strain. These new results suggest that complex mechanisms may be involved in tissue- and cell type-specific control of BGS activity. The hypothesis is proposed that there may be “controlling genes” determining specific enzyme levels by causing a limited somatic amplification of the structural gene and by controlling the degree of amplification in a given cell type and strain.     

The effect of some ions on the activity of β-galactosidase and the inhibitory effect of tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane

The stimulating effect of phosphate and the inhibitory effect of tris-HCl on the activity of β-galactosidase inEscherichia coli was studied. The phosphate anion antagonizes the inhibitory effect of chloride. Since a similar effect is displayed by sulphate and arsenate no specific “stimulating” effect of phosphate can take place. The tris cation has also an inhibitory effect which is antagonized by univalent cations (K⁺). The resulting β-galactosidase activity reflects the antagonisms between cations and anions present in the reaction medium.     

Oestrogenic activity of CPRG (chlorophenol red-β-D-galactopyranoside), a β-galactosidase substrate commonly used in recombinant yeast oestrogenic assays

The finding that a variety of chemicals display oestrogenic activity has resulted in the development of in vitro and in vivo assays to assess oestrogenic activity. One such assay, the yeast oestrogen assay (YES) makes use of recombinant yeast cells that harbour an oestrogen receptor expression cassette and a reporter construct, coding for bgalactosidase. The induction mechanism starts with the binding of oestrogenic compounds to the oestrogen receptor. This complex activates the production of β-galactosidase. The β-galactosidase activity is thus a measure of the oestrogenic activity of chemical compounds. In the YES assay, the β-galactosidase activity may be quantified with the chromogenic substrate chlorophenol red-β-d-galactopyranoside (CPRG). In the present study it is reported that CPRG or its β-galactosidase degradation product chlorophenol red act in the YES as an oestrogenic compound itself. The implications of this finding are described. It is especially argued that chlorophenol red production after prolonged incubation of the assay might be misinterpreted as an oestrogenic effect of the test compound.     

Latent β-galactosidase inEscherichia coli

Incubation of washedEscherichia coli cells with crystalline RNase lead to increased β-galactosidase activity. The height of the increase depended on the type of strain and the conditions of cultivation. RNase only raised the level of the β-galactosidase which was bound to the relatively easily sedimenting cellular particles. It had no effect on the activity of β-galactosidase present in soluble form in the supernatant after the disruption of cells or on the activity of purified β-galactosidase in solution. Another basic protein, histone, was found to have a similar effect to that of RNase.     

ENHANCED β-GALACTOSIDASE PRODUCTION OF Aspergillus oryzae MUTATED BY UV AND LiCl

In order to breed a high-yield β-galactosidase-producing strain, Aspergillus oryzae was used as the parent strain and mutagenized with ultraviolet (UV) and UV plus lithium chloride (LiCl), respectively. After being mutagenized by UV, the β-galactosidase activity of mutant UV-15-20 reached 114.08 U/mL, which revealed a 49.22% increase compared with the original strain. A mutant UV-LiCl-38 with high β-galactosidase activity (121.42U/mL) was obtained after compound mutagenesis of UV and LiCl; the β-galactosidase activity of this mutant was 58.82% higher than that of the parent strain. Subculture testing indicated that UV-15-20 and UV-LiCl-38 had good hereditary stability and may be ideal strains for the production of β-galactosidase. Additionally, it was demonstrated that compound mutagenesis with UV and LiCl is an effective mutation method for breeding industrially interesting strains.     

酿酒酵母(Saccharomyces cerevisiae)半乳糖可诱导表达系统特性的研究

把大肠杆菌β-半乳糖苷酶基因克隆到带有酵母半乳糖可诱导启动子GAL1的穿梭表达质粒pYESZ中,并把得到的重组质粒分别转化到两种不同遗传性状的宿主菌中,其中一株菌为蛋白酶活性缺失90％以上的pep4－3突变菌株。通过比较两株重组菌产生的β-半乳糖苷酶活性水平发现在所述实验条件下,蛋白酶缺失突变菌株中产生的β-卜半乳糖苷酶活水平不仅均要高于另一对照菌株,并且pep4-3突变菌株表现出受葡萄糖阻遏的严紧程度高及对诱导反应迅速等特点。此外,带有重组质粒的pep4－3突变菌株在葡萄糖阻遏培养基中最大生长量和重组对照菌株基本相同,但β-半乳糖苷酶在pep4－3突变菌株中的表达对细胞生长的影响明显小于对照菌株。     

Immunoprecipitation combined with microchip capillary gel electrophoresis: Detection and quantification of β-galactosidase from crude E. coli cell lysate

A sensitive and selective analytical method for the determination and quantification of endogenous β-galactosidase in crude E. coli cell lysates by immunoprecipitation combined with automated microchip capillary gel electrophoresis (IP-MCGE) with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection was developed. Total cell lysates were derivatized minimally with a fluorescence dye, incubated with anti-β-galactosidase antibodies, and the antigen/antibody complex was precipitated with protein G-coated magnetic beads. After capturing the complex, it was eluted from the beads under denaturing conditions and loaded directly onto a multisample microchip for analysis. The effects of antibody selection and the importance of preclearing steps were studied in detail. For quantification, an external calibration through spiking pure β-galactosidase into E. coli lysate was performed. Recovery rates of immunoprecipitation after spiking experiments and the amount of unknown endogenous β-galactosidase in E. coli lysates were determined. As proof of principle, E. coli cultures grown on nutrition media with several glucose/lactose ratios were analyzed. Differences in the expression level of β-galactosidase could be detected and measured with the developed method. Detected amounts of β-galactosidase in different culture media correlated with the β-galactosidase activities in these cultures.     

High lysosomal activities in cystic fibrosis tracheal gland cells corrected by adenovirus-mediated CFTR gene transfer

Human tracheal gland serous (HTGS) cells are now believed to be a major target of cystic fibrosis (CF) gene therapy. To evaluate the efficiency of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in these cells we tested the adenovirus construction containing β-galactosidase cDNA. We observed that the endogenous β-galactosidase activity in cultured CF-HTGS cells was too strong to allow us to detect any exogenous β-galactosidase activity. Immunohistological study on sections of human tracheal tissue confirmed the presence of β-galactosidase in the serous component of the submucosal glands. We then looked for other lysosomal activities in normal and CF-HTGS cells. We showed that normal cells already have elevated enzyme values and that CF-HTGS cells contained 2–4-fold more β-galactosidase, α-fucosidase, α-mannosidase and β-glucuronidase activities than normal cells. An analysis of their kinetic constants has shown that this difference could be attributed to a lower K_m of CF lysosomal enzymes. More importantly, these differences are eliminated after adenovirus-mediated CFTR gene transfer and not after β-galactosidase gene transfer.     

Purification and characterization of extracellular β-galactosidase from the psychrotolerant yeast Guehomyces pullulans 17-1 isolated from sea sediment in Antarctica

A psychrotolerant yeast Guehomyces pullulans 17-1 isolated from sea sediment in Antarctica could produce high level (17.2 U/ml) of both extracellular and cell-bound β-galactosidase. The extracellular β-galactosidase in the supernatant of the cell culture of the psychrotolerant yeast G. pullulans 17-1 was purified to homogeneity with a 2.4-fold increase in specific activity as compared to the supernatant by concentration, gel filtration chromatography (Sephadex G-200) and cation-exchange chromatography (CM-Sepharose Fast Flow cation-exchange). The molecular mass of the purified extracellular β-galactosidase was estimated to be 335 kDa. The optimal temperature and pH of the purified β-galactosidase were 50 °C and 4.0, respectively. K_m and V_max values of the purified β-galactosidase for o-nitrophenyl-β-d-galactopyranoside were 3.3 mM and 9.2 μmol/min. Lactose can be converted into glucose and galactose and a large amount of reducing sugar can be released from milk under catalysis of the purified β-galactosidase. The matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight/time-of-flight mass spectroscopy identified a peptide ALEEYKK which is the conserved motif of the β-galactosidases from other yeasts. The results show that the enzyme may have potential applications in food industry.     

Correction of combined β-galactosidase/neuraminidase deficiency in human fibroblasts

The combined deficiency of β-galactosidase and neuraminidase in human fibroblasts can be corrected to nearly normal values. This can be accomplished by addition of concentrated culture medium obtained after NH₄Cl stimulation of different types of human fibroblasts, including those with an isolated β-galactosidase or neuraminidase deficiency. The corrective factor is a macromolecular glycoprotein, which is labile at 60°C. Its uptake by human fibroblasts is competitively inhibited by mannose-6-phosphate and its corrective action within β-gal^?/neur^? fibroblasts continues during a “chase” of 72 hours.     

Purification of beta-glucosidase activities from bovine spleen by affinity chromatography

Bovine spleen β-d-glucosidase, glucosylceramide: β-d-glucosidase and glucosylsphingosine: β-d-glucosidase were purified by chromatography on a “gluconate” Sepharose column. Ten other lysosomal acid hydrolases, present in the preparation applied to the column, were absent from the glucosidase fraction.     

Purification of alpha- and beta-galactosidases by affinity chromatography

Jack bean meal β-galactosidase and ficin α-galactosidase were purified 48- and 76-fold, respectively, by chromatography on galactonate-benzidine Sepharose. The use of sugar acid lactones coupled to an inert support may provide a generally applicable method for lysosomal acid hydrolase purification.     

Copurification and separation of β-galactosidase and sialidase from porcine testis

• 1.1. A soluble sialidase was copurified apparently as an enzyme complex with acid β-galactosidase from porcine testis.
• 2.2. The sialidase exhibited its maximum activity at acidic pH. It was efficiently active towards 4-methylumbelliferyl-α-d-N-acetyl-neuraminic acid and sialyllactose, relatively inactive towards glycoproteins, and had little activity towards glycolipids.
• 3.3. The complex could be separated by sucrose gradient centrifugation or isoelectric focusing.
• 4.4. The separated enzymes had molecular weights about 600,000 for β-galactosidase and more than about 1,000,000 for sialidase by Sepharose 4B gel filtration.
• 5.5. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the β-galactosidase showed three protein bands with molecular weights of 63,000, 31,000 and 20,000.

     

Demonstration of Various Acid Hydrolases and Preliminary Characterization of Acid Phosphatase in Naegleria fowleri1

ABSTRACT. Extracts of the pathogenic ameba Naegleria fowleri, prepared by freeze-thawing and sonication, were analyzed for their content of various hydrolytic enzymes that have acid pH optima. The organism is rich in acid phosphatase activity as well as a variety of glycosidases which include β-glucosidase, β-galactosidase, β-fucosidase, α-mannosidase, hexosaminidase, arylsulfatase A, and β-glucuronidase. The crude extract contained only negligible levels of sphingomyelinase, neuraminidase, or arylsulfatase B. All of the hydrolases exhibited higher activity at pH 5.5 than at 7.0, indicating that they are truly “acid” hydrolases. In general, after centrifugation (100,000 g, 1 h), except for arylsulfatase B, more than half of the activity of each of the various hydrolases was recovered in the supernatant fraction. The acid phosphatase in the high-speed supernatant was purified 45-fold (32% yield) by chromatography on QAE-Sephadex and Sephadex G-200 and shown to have the following properties: 1) pH optima, 5.5; 2) K_m (4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate), 0.60 mM; 3) molecular weight (estimated by gel filtration chromatography), 92,000; 4) inhibited by heteropolymolybdate complexes but not by L(+) sodium tartrate (0.5 mM) or sodium fluoride (0.5 mM). In addition, unlike the tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase of Leishmania donovani, the major acid phosphatase of N. fowleri is less than 5% as effective in inhibiting superoxide anion production by f-Met-Leu-Phe-stimulated human neutrophils. The finding of high levels of a number of acid hydrolases in Naegleria fowleri raises several questions that merit further study: Do the hydrolases perform a housekeeping function in this single cell eukaryote or do they play some role in the pathogenic process that ensues when the organism infects a suitable host?