Molecular cloning and nucleotide sequence of a gene for alkaline cellulase from Bacillus sp. KSM-635

A gene for alkaline cellulase from the alkalophilic Bacillus sp. KSM-635 was cloned into the HindIII site of pBR322 and expressed in Escherichia coli HB101. Although the recombinant plasmid contained two HindIII inserts of 2.6 kb and 4.0 kb, the inserts were found to be contiguous in the Bacillus genome by hybridization analysis. Nucleotide sequences of a 2.4 kb region which was indispensable for the production of cellulase, and the flanking, 1.1 kb region, were determined. There was an open reading frame (ORF) of 2823 bp in the 3498 bp sequence determined, which encoded 941 amino acid residues. Two putative ribosome-binding sites and a sigma 43-type, promoter-like sequence were found upstream from an initiation codon in the ORF. The deduced amino-terminal sequence resembles the signal peptide of extracellular proteins. A region of amino acids, 249 to 568, of the deduced amino acid sequence of the cellulase from this organism is homologous with those of alkaline and neutral enzymes of other micro-organisms, but nine amino acid residues were found to be conserved only in the alkaline enzymes.     

IL-7 promotes thymocyte proliferation and maintains immunocompetent thymocytes bearing alpha beta or gamma delta T-cell receptors in vitro: synergism with IL-2

IL-7 induced the proliferation of normal thymocytes and the effect was synergistically potentiated by a small dose of IL-2, which by itself hardly affected thymocyte proliferation. No synergism was observed between IL-7 and any one of the other lymphokines including IL-1, IL-3, and IL-4. The thymocyte culture stimulated with IL-7 and IL-2 consisted of single positive (CD4+CD8- and CD4-CD8+) and double negative (CD4-CD8-) populations, and double positive (CD4+CD8+) cells were completely deleted. Both single positive and double negative thymocytes expressed CD3, but only the former exhibited V beta 8 and V beta 6 in an expected proportion (approximately 30% in BALB/c mice) and the latter none at all. Immunoprecipitation of the cultured thymocytes by anti-TCR gamma antibody, on the other hand, revealed the presence of a TCR gamma chain. Taken together, these results indicated that the thymocyte cultured with IL-7 and IL-2 consisted of mature T cells bearing alpha beta or gamma delta TCR. Experiments using preselected thymocyte subpopulations indicated that double negative cells responded to both IL-7 and IL-2 with positive synergism when combined, while thymocytes enriched for single positive cells preferentially responded to IL-7 with little response to IL-2 and no detectable synergism. Double positive thymocytes showed no proliferation in response to IL-7 and IL-2. In contrast to single positive thymocytes, splenic T cells hardly responded to IL-7, although significant proliferation was induced in the presence of a low dose of IL-2. Thymocytes cultured with IL-7 and IL-2 showed little nonspecific cytotoxic activity, but responded to Con A or alloantigen, whereas those stimulated with a high dose of IL-2 alone exhibited potent cytotoxic activity. These results indicated that IL-7 was involved in the generation of immunocompetent T cells in the thymus in concert with IL-2.     

High levels of human apolipoprotein A-I in transgenic mice result in increased plasma levels of small high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles comparable to human HDL3

Five lines of transgenic mice, which had integrated the human apolipoprotein (apo) A-I gene and various amounts of flanking sequences, were established. Normally, apoA-I is expressed mainly in liver and intestine, but all of the transgenic lines only expressed apoA-I mRNA in liver, strongly suggesting that 256 base pairs of 5'-flanking sequence was sufficient for liver apoA-I gene expression but that 5.5 kilobase pairs was not sufficient for intestinal expression. Mean plasma levels of human apoA-I varied in different lines from approximately 0.1 to 200% of normal mouse levels. This was not dependent on the amount of flanking sequence. Lipoprotein levels were studied in detail in one of the lines with a significantly increased apoA-I pool size. In one study, the total plasma apoA-I level (mouse plus human) was 381 +/- 43 mg/dl in six animals from this line, compared to 153 +/- 17 mg/dl in matched controls. Total and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were increased 60% in transgenic animals, compared to controls (total cholesterol: 125 +/- 12 versus 78 +/- 13 mg/dl, p = 0.0001; HDL-C 90 +/- 7 versus 55 +/- 11 mg/dl, p = 0.0001). The molar ratio of HDL-C/apoA-I was significantly lower in transgenic animals, 17 +/- 1 versus 25 +/- 2 (p = 0.0001), suggesting the increase was in smaller HDL particles. This was confirmed by native gradient gel electrophoresis. This was not due to aberrant metabolism of human apoA-I in the mouse, since human apoA-I was distributed throughout the HDL particle size range and was catabolized at the same rate as mouse apoA-I. In another study of 23 transgenic mice, HDL-C and human apoA-I levels were highly correlated (r = 0.87, p less than 0.001). The slope of the correlation line also indicated the additional HDL particles were in the smaller size range. We conclude that human apoA-I can be incorporated into mouse HDL, and excessive amounts increase HDL-C levels primarily by increasing smaller HDL particles, comparable to human HDL3 (HDL-C/apoA-I molar ratio = 18).     

Amino acid residues stabilizing a Bacillus alpha-amylase against irreversible thermoinactivation

The alpha-amylase of Bacillus licheniformis (BLA) is stable and active at high temperature. More than 80% of its activity is retained after heat treatment at 90 degrees C for 30 min, and the optimum temperature for its activity is 80-85 degrees C. In contrast, the alpha-amylase of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BAA), the amino acid sequence of which shows 80% homology with that of BLA, is rapidly inactivated at 90 degrees C. Various chimeric genes were constructed from the structural genes for the two enzymes, and their products were analyzed for stability as to irreversible thermoinactivation. Two regions in the amino acid sequence of BLA comprising Gln178 (region I) and the 255th-270th residues (region II), respectively, were shown to determine the thermostability of BLA. Region I plays a major role in determining the thermostability. By means of site-directed mutagenesis of the BAA gene, deletion of Arg176 and Gly177 in region I and substitutions of alanine for Lys269 and aspartic acid for Asn266 in region II were shown to be responsible for the enhancement of the thermostability. Mutant BAAs containing the above deletion and substitutions showed almost the same thermostability as BLA as to irreversible thermoinactivation. Nevertheless, the mutant BAAs showed a temperature optimum as low as that of BAA (65 degrees C), indicating that they are still susceptible to reversible inactivation at temperatures higher than 65 degrees C.     

Decrease of nitrate biosynthesis in scorbutic mutant rats unable to synthesize ascorbic acid

The effect of ascorbic acid deficiency on the urinary excretion of nitrate was investigated using a mutant strain of rats (osteogenic disorder syndrome rats; ODS rats) unable to synthesize ascorbic acid. The amount of urinary nitrate excreted by ODS rats with or without ascorbic acid supplementation were measured before and after the intraperitoneal injection of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Urinary nitrate excretion increased markedly after LPS injection. Urinary nitrate excretion by ODS rats not supplied with ascorbic acid was significantly less than that of those supplied with ascorbic acid both before and after LPS injection. These results show that ascorbic acid enhances both LPS-stimulated and constitutive nitrate production in vivo.