Cloning,characterization and expression of a cDNA encoding a granulin-like polypeptide in Ciona savignyi

Previous study in our laboratory confirmed that a novel polypeptide, CS5931 derived from Ciona savignyi possesses potent antitumor activity. In the present study, the full length cDNA of CS5931 precursor, termed Cs-pgrn-1 was cloned. The complete cDNA sequence of this gene consists of 685 bp containing an open reading frame (ORF) of 522 bp (173 amino acid residues). In silico analysis revealed that the polypeptide consists of two identical domains, similar with granulin (GRN) found in other species, and each of the domain encodes a polypeptide identical with CS5931. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that CS5931 shares high homology with Ciona intestinalis GRN and is conserved during evolution. The polypeptide also shows high similarity with human GRN A, B, and C. Prediction of 3D protein structure revealed the 3D structure of CS5931 is very similar with human GRN A. The CS5931 was expressed using a prokaryotic expression system and the purified polypeptide inhibited the growth of several tumor cell lines in vitro via apoptotic pathway. Our study revealed that CS5931 has the potential to be developed as a novel antitumor agent.     

小菜粉蝶颗粒体病毒颗粒体蛋白基因的序列测定及在大肠杆菌中的表达

根据颗粒体病毒颗粒体蛋白(Granulin)基因在其起始密码子上游的12个碱基高度保守序列(TATAAGGAATTT)以及大菜粉蝶颗粒体病毒(PbGV)的颗粒体蛋白基因的序列[1]设计引物,PCR扩增得到850bp左右大小的片段,核苷酸序列测定结果表明该病毒的granulin基因全长为855bp,起始密码位于第38～40位碱基,终止密码位于779～781位碱基,编码框序列全长为744;推测该基因编码一段由247个氨基酸组成的多肽,分子质量约为2.9178×104道尔顿.与其它颗粒体病毒颗粒体蛋白基因进行同源性比较,核苷酸同源性都在70%以上,氨基酸同源性都在75%以上,最高的为大菜粉蝶颗粒体病毒(PbGV),核苷酸同源性为97%,氨基酸同源性为98%.构建了重组表达载体pet-28a-Gran,IPTG诱导后经SDS-PAGE检测,表明获得了颗粒体蛋白基因在大肠杆菌BL21中的特异表达.     

A Kunitz-type cysteine protease inhibitor from cauliflower and Arabidopsis

A Kunitz-type protease inhibitor co-purified from cauliflower florets with a granulin domain cysteine protease that cleaved barley proaleurain to yield a molecular form the same size as that for mature aleurain. The purified cauliflower protease required treatment with SDS detergent to become active. This observation raised the question of whether the protease inhibitor might have the ability to interact with the granulin domain protease. Here we express an Arabidopsis homolog of the protease inhibitor as a recombinant protein and demonstrate that it is a potent inhibitor of the recombinant proaleurain maturation protease and of papain when assayed at pH 4.5 but not at pH 6.3. In a pull-down assay, the inhibitor bound tightly to papain, but only weakly to the aspartate protease pepsin. When the cauliflower protease inhibitor was transiently expressed in tobacco suspension culture protoplasts, it colocalized with BP-80, a vacuolar sorting receptor that interacts with proaleurain and traffics to prevacuolar compartments for lytic vacuoles. Our results indicate that the cauliflower and Arabidopsis protease inhibitors would traffic through cellular compartments where proaleurain also traffics. Their ability to inhibit a cysteine protease implicated in maturation of proaleurain to active form at the acidic pH found in vacuoles raises the possibility that they could participate in regulating activation of aleurain.     

Autocrine growth factor revisited: PC-cell-derived growth factor (progranulin), a critical player in breast cancer tumorigenesis

PC-cell derived growth factor (PCDGF), also known as granulin precursor or progranulin, is the largest member of a family of growth modulators characterized by a unique cysteine-rich motif. Biological and pathological studies point out to the importance of this growth factor in breast cancer and other human cancers, where it stimulates proliferation and survival, and promotes metastasis. These studies suggest that PCDGF is a suitable therapeutic and diagnostic target for the development of novel cancer therapy and diagnosis.     

黄地老虎颗粒体病毒DNA片段的克隆与颗粒体蛋白基因的定位

用ｐＵＣ１９质粒作载体,克隆了黄地老虎颗粒体病毒（Ａｇｒｏｌｉｓｓｅｇｅｔｕｍｇｒａｎｕｌｏｓｉｓｖｉｒｕｓ,简称ＡｓＧＶ）ＤＮＡＰｓｔＩ－Ｄ．Ｅ．Ｆ．Ｇ．Ｈ．Ｊ．Ｋ．等７个片段。以［￣（３２）Ｐ］－ｄＣＴＰ标记的油桐尺蠖核型多角体病毒（Ｂｕｚｕｒａｓｕｐｐｒｅｓｓａｒｉａｎｕｃｌｃａｒｐｏｌｙｈｅｄｒｏｓｉｓｖｉｒｕｓ简称ＢｓＮＰＶ）多角体蛋白基因为探针,在３７℃条件下对ＡｓＧＶ）颗粒体蛋白基因进行了定位,将其分别定位于ＢｓｌⅡ－Ｓ或ＴＰｓＴＩ－Ａ或Ｂ和ＥｃｉＲＩ－Ａ片段上。     

小菜粉蝶颗粒体病毒颗粒体蛋白基因的序列测定及在大肠杆菌中的表达

根据颗粒体病毒颗粒体蛋白(Granulin)基因在其起始密码子上游的12个碱基高度保守序列(TATAAGGAATTT)以及大菜粉蝶颗粒体病毒(PbGV)的颗粒体蛋白基因的序列[1]设计引物,PCR扩增得到850bp左右大小的片段,核苷酸序列测定结果表明该病毒的granulin基因全长为855bp,起始密码位于第38~40位碱基,终止密码位于779~781位碱基,编码框序列全长为744;推测该基因编码一段由247个氨基酸组成的多肽,分子质量约为2.9178×104道尔顿。与其它颗粒体病毒颗粒体蛋白基因进行同源性比较,核苷酸同源性都在70%以上,氨基酸同源性都在75%以上,最高的为大菜粉蝶颗粒体病毒(PbGV),核苷酸同源性为97%,氨基酸同源性为98%。构建了重组表达载体pet-28a-Gran,IPTG诱导后经SDS-PAGE检测,表明获得了颗粒体蛋白基因在大肠杆菌BL21中的特异表达。