Peroxisome-targeted and tandem repeat multimer expressions of human antimicrobial peptide LL37 in Pichia pastoris

Although the human antimicrobial peptide LL37 has a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities, it easily damages host cells following heterologous expressions. This study attempted two strategies to alleviate its damage to host cells when expressed in Pichia pastoris using the AOX1 promoter. Tandem repeat multimers of LL37 were first designed, and secretion expression strains GS115-9K-(DPLL37DP)_n (n?=?2, 4, 6 and 8) containing different copies of the LL37 gene were constructed. However, LL37 tandems still killed the cells after 96?hr of induction. Subsequently, peroxisome-targeted expression was performed by adding a peroxisomal targeting signal 1 (SKL) at the C-terminus of LL37. The LL37 expression strain GS115-3.5K-LL37-SKL showed no significant inhibition in the cells after induction. Antibacterial activity assays showed that the recombinant LL37 expressed in peroxisomes had good antimicrobial activities. Then, a strain GS115-3.5K-LL37-GFP-SKL producing LL37, green fluorescent protein, and SKL fusion proteins was constructed, and the fusion protein was confirmed to be targeting the peroxisomes. However, protein extraction analysis indicated that most of the fusion proteins were still located in the cell debris after cell disruption, and further studies are required to extract more proteins from the peroxisome membrane.     

Yeast cells harboring human alpha-1,3-fucosyltransferase at the cell surface engineered using Pir, a cell wall-anchored protein

Human alpha-1,3-fucosyltansferase (FucT) encoded by the FUT6 gene was displayed at the cell surface of yeast cells engineered using the yeast cell wall protein Pir1 or Pir2, and the FucT activity was detected at the surface of cells producing the Pir1-HA-FUT6 or Pir2-FLAG-FUT6 fusion proteins. To obtain higher activity, we engineered the host yeast cells in which endogenous PIR genes of the PIR1-4 gene family were disrupted. Among the disruptants, the pir1Delta pir2Delta pir3Delta strain with the PIR1-HA-FUT6 fusion gene showed the highest FucT activity, which was about three-fold higher than that of the wild-type strain. Furthermore, the co-expression of both the Pir1-HA-FUT6 and the Pir2-FLAG-FUT6 fusions showed an approximately 1.5-fold higher activity than that in the cell wall displaying Pir1-HA-FUT6 alone. The present method was thus effective for producing yeast cells that can easily synthesize various oligosaccharides, such as Le(x) and sLe(x), using Pir-glycosyltransferase fusions in combination with the deletion of endogenous PIR genes.     

Optimization of the expression of recombinant human activin A in the yeast Pichia pastoris

We report a new procedure to express recombinant human activin A using the methanolic yeast, Pichia pastoris. Optimization of culture procedures has involved comprehensive examination of the effects of culture vessel shape, volume of broth in the induction and expression cultures, methanol concentration, culturing temperature, and pH of the expression cultures. After this optimization, as well as modification of the native cleavage sites, a laboratory scale procedure has been established which routinely produced 2–10 mg/L amounts of this vital growth factor in the highly efficient, eukaryotic yeast system. This system avoids the need to produce this protein and similar TGF‐β proteins in mammalian cell lines which, in addition to being costly, produce many native binding partners of these cystine knot proteins, a factor which can dramatically affect yields of the target protein. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2010     

Lactic acid bacteria as prime candidates for codon optimization

In species having a strong correlation of expressivity and codon bias it has been shown that heterologous expression can be optimized by changing codons of the introduced gene towards the set of codons that the host organism naturally uses in its highly expressed genes. Even though two lactic acid bacteria are fully sequenced, there are no reports on attempts of codon optimization in the literature. In this report it is demonstrated that codons used in highly expressed genes tend to differ from the codons in lowly expressed genes, and that there is a strong correlation of codon bias and empirical expressivity (codon adaptation index) in Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus plantarum. This strongly suggests that codon optimization strategies could be applied to expression systems with lactic acid bacteria as producer strains. A good example of a candidate for codon optimization is the mouse interleukin-2 gene, which in its natural form has an extremely low codon adaptation index for expression in Lc. lactis.     

Gene expression patterns in anterior pituitary associated with quantitative measure of oestrous behaviour in dairy cows

Intensive selection for high milk yield in dairy cows has raised production levels substantially but at the cost of reduced fertility, which manifests in different ways including reduced expression of oestrous behaviour. The genomic regulation of oestrous behaviour in bovines remains largely unknown. Here, we aimed to identify and study those genes that were associated with oestrous behaviour among genes expressed in the bovine anterior pituitary either at the start of oestrous cycle or at the mid-cycle (around day 12 of cycle), or regardless of the phase of cycle. Oestrous behaviour was recorded in each of 28 primiparous cows from 30 days in milk onwards till the day of their sacrifice (between 77 and 139 days in milk) and quantified as heat scores. An average heat score value was calculated for each cow from heat scores observed during consecutive oestrous cycles excluding the cycle on the day of sacrifice. A microarray experiment was designed to measure gene expression in the anterior pituitary of these cows, 14 of which were sacrificed at the start of oestrous cycle (day 0) and 14 around day 12 of cycle (day 12). Gene expression was modelled as a function of the orthogonally transformed average heat score values using a Bayesian hierarchical mixed model on data from day 0 cows alone (analysis 1), day 12 cows alone (analysis 2) and the combined data from day 0 and day 12 cows (analysis 3). Genes whose expression patterns showed significant linear or non-linear relationships with average heat scores were identified in all three analyses (177, 142 and 118 genes, respectively). Gene ontology terms enriched among genes identified in analysis 1 revealed processes associated with expression of oestrous behaviour whereas the terms enriched among genes identified in analysis 2 and 3 were general processes which may facilitate proper expression of oestrous behaviour at the subsequent oestrus. Studying these genes will help to improve our understanding of the genomic regulation of oestrous behaviour, ultimately leading to better management strategies and tools to improve or monitor reproductive performance in bovines.     

大肠杆菌F18菌株敏感和抵抗基因型仔猪十二指肠基因表达谱差异分析

文章运用Agilent 双标记表达谱芯片, 基于已建立的苏太猪大肠杆菌F18菌株敏感性和抗性型全同胞配对个体, 分析十二指肠组织基因表达谱差异, 旨在筛选导致仔猪断奶后腹泻和水肿病发生的大肠杆菌F18菌株受体相关基因, 探讨造成大肠杆菌病抗性和敏感性资源家系抗性差异的分子生物学机理。研究结果显示, 以Fold change绝对值大于2倍进行筛选, 在敏感型(GG基因型)对抗性型(AA基因型)配对组中, 差异基因共13个, 其中上调6个, 下调7个, 在以敏感型(AG基因型)对抗性型(AA基因型)配对组中, 共筛选出差异基因6个, 其中上调4个, 下调2个。经GO分析发现差异基因的生物学过程主要涉及免疫应答、胞外区修饰(如糖基化)、细胞黏附、信号转导等。通路发现大肠杆菌F18菌株抵抗性和敏感性差异基因主要涉及糖脂合成代谢以及炎症免疫相关通路, 经芯片筛选出的相关基因的功能还需进一步的研究验证。     

Yarrowia lipolytica possesses two plasma membrane alkali metal cation/H+ antiporters with different functions in cell physiology

The family of Nha antiporters mediating the efflux of alkali metal cations in exchange for protons across the plasma membrane is conserved in all yeast species. Yarrowia lipolytica is a dimorphic yeast, phylogenetically very distant from the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A search in its sequenced genome revealed two genes (designated as YlNHA1 and YlNHA2) with homology to the S. cerevisiae NHA1 gene, which encodes a plasma membrane alkali metal cation/H+ antiporter. Upon heterologous expression of both YlNHA genes in S. cerevisiae, we showed that Y. lipolytica antiporters differ not only in length and sequence, but also in their affinity for individual substrates. While the YlNha1 protein mainly increased cell tolerance to potassium, YlNha2p displayed a remarkable transport capacity for sodium. Thus, Y. lipolytica is the first example of a yeast species with two plasma membrane alkali metal cation/H+ antiporters differing in their putative functions in cell physiology; cell detoxification vs. the maintenance of stable intracellular pH, potassium content and cell volume.     

Receptor-specific targeting with complementary peptide nucleic acids conjugated to peptide analogs and radionuclides

Summary Genomic sequencing makes it possible to identify all the genes of an organism, now including Homo sapiens. Yet measurement of the expression of each gene of interest still presents a daunting prospect. Northern blots, RNase protection assays, as well as microarrays and related technologies permit measurement of gene expression in total RNA extracted from cultured cells or tissue samples. It would be most valuable, however, to quantitate gene expression noninvasively in living cells and tissues. Unfortunately, no reliable method has been available to measure levels of specific mRNAs in vivo. Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) display superior ruggedness and hybridization properties as a diagnostic tool for gene expression, and could be used for this purpose. On the down side, they are negligibly internalized by normal or malignant cells in the absence of conjugated ligands. Nevertheless, we have observed that Tc-99m-peptides can delineate tumors, and PNA-peptides designed to bind to IGF-1 receptors on malignant cells are taken up specifically and concentrated in nuclei. We have postulated that antisense Tc-99m-PNA-peptides will be taken up by human cancer cells, will hybridize to complementary mRNA targets, and will permit scintigraphic imaging of oncogene mRNAs in human cancer xenografts in a mouse model. The oncogenes cyclin D1, ERBB2, c-MYC, K-RAS, and tumor suppressor p53 are being probed initially. These experiments provide a proof-of-principle for noninvasive detection of oncogene expression in living cells and tissues. This scintigraphic imaging technique should be applicable to any particular gene of interest in a cell or tissue type with characteristic receptors.     

Determination of total and active immobilized enzyme distribution in porous solid supports

The total and active immobilized enzyme (IME) distributions in porous supports are studied both theoretically and experimentally. In order to determine experimentally the enzyme distribution profiles within a single particle, we construct a diffusion cell containing controlled-pore glass particles such that the cell would mimic a large pellet support. Our purpose is to study the interplay between the diffusion process within the interparticle void space and immobilization process in the controlled-pore glass particles onto the evolution of the (total and active) enzyme distributions. A mathematical model is developed to describe the interaction of various processes within the diffusion cell. The immobilized enzymes are determined for a system of trypsin and controlled-pore glass particles. The total amount of enzymes are determined by the amino acid analysis, and the active fraction is obtained by an active-site titration. The experimentally measured total IME profiles compare very well with that predicted by the model. The determined active enzyme profile is found to be nonuniform one, and it represents about 40% of the total enzyme immobilized in the support particles.     

人心肌肌球蛋白轻链1的克隆,表达纯化和单抗制备

报道了中国人心肌肌球蛋白轻链１ｃＤＮＡ的核苷酸序列,并由此推算的氨基酸序列。与国外发表的人心肌肌球蛋白轻链的氨基酸序列比较,发现有两处差异,即在２４位,由谷氨酸变为丙氨酸,则从９８位起至１０１位有４个氨基酸序列的连续差异,即由天冬酰胺－精氨酸－丝氨酸－赖氨酸变为赖氨酸－脯氨酸－精氨酸－谷氨酰妥,推测可能是由于人种差异而引起的。利用该ｃＤＮＡ在大肠杆菌内的表达产物,已获得一株高效的抗中国人心肌肌球蛋