12 research outputs found
The Arabidopsis lue1 mutant defines a katanin p60 ortholog involved in hormonal control of microtubule orientation during cell growth.
No full textUdgivelsesdato: 2003-Mar-1The lue1 mutant was previously isolated in a bio-imaging screen for Arabidopsis mutants exhibiting inappropriate regulation of an AtGA20ox1 promoter-luciferase reporter fusion. Here we show that lue1 is allelic to fra2, bot1 and erh3, and encodes a truncated katanin-like microtubule-severing protein (AtKSS). Complementation of lue1 with the wild-type AtKSS gene restored both wild-type stature and luciferase reporter levels. Hormonal responses of lue1 to ethylene and gibberellins revealed inappropriate cortical microtubule reorientation during cell growth. Moreover, a fusion between the AtKSS protein and GFP decorated cortical microtubules. A yeast two-hybrid screen with AtKSS as the bait identified proteins related to those involved in microtubule processing, including a katanin p80 subunit and a kinesin ortholog. These results indicate that AtKSS is involved in microtubule dynamics in response to plant hormones
Secretory expression of functional barley limit dextrinase by Pichia pastoris using high cell-density fermentation
No full textHeterologous production of large multidomain proteins from higher plants is often cumbersome. Barley limit dextrinase (LD), a 98 kDa multidomain starch and alpha-limit dextrin debranching enzyme, plays a major role in starch mobilization during seed germination and is possibly involved in starch biosynthesis by trimming of intermediate branched alpha-glucan structures. Highly active barley LD is obtained by secretory expression during high cell-density fermentation of Pichia pastoris. The LD encoding gene fragment without signal peptide was subcloned in-frame with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-factor secretion signal of the P. pastoris vector pPIC9K under control of the alcohol oxidase I promoter. Optimization of a fed-batch fermentation procedure enabled efficient production of LD in a 5-L bioreactor, which combined with affinity chromatography on beta-cyclodextrin-Sepharose followed by Hiload Superdex 200 gel filtration yielded 34 mg homogenous LID (84% recovery). The identity of the recombinant LD was verified by N-terminal sequencing and by mass spectrometric peptide mapping. A molecular mass of 98 kDa was estimated by SDS-PAGE in excellent agreement with the theoretical value of 97419 Da. Kinetic constants of LD catalyzed pullulan hydrolysis were found to K-m,K-app = 0.16 +/- 0.02 mg/mL and k(cat,app) = 79 +/- 10 s(-1) by fitting the uncompetitive substrate inhibition Michaelis-Menten equation, which reflects significant substrate inhibition and/or transglycosylation. The resulting catalytic coefficient, k(cat,app)/K-m,K-app = 488 +/- 23 mL/(mg s) is 3.5-fold higher than for barley malt LD. Surface plasmon resonance analysis showed alpha-, beta-, and gamma-cyclodextrin binding to LD with K-d of 27.2, 0.70, and 34.7 mu M, respectively
Arabidopsis VARIEGATED 3 encodes a chloroplast-targeted, zinc-finger protein required for chloroplast and palisade cell development
No full textThe stable, recessive Arabidopsis variegated 3 (var3) mutant exhibits a variegated phenotype due to somatic areas lacking or containing developmentally retarded chloroplasts and greatly reduced numbers of palisade cells. The VAR3 gene, isolated by transposon tagging, encodes the 85.9 kDa VAR3 protein containing novel repeats and zinc fingers described as protein interaction domains. VAR3 interacts specifically in yeast and in vitro with NCED4, a putative polyene chain or carotenoid dioxygenase, and both VAR3 and NCED4 accumulate in the chloroplast stroma. Metabolic profiling demonstrates that pigment profiles are qualitatively similar in wild type and var3, although var3 accumulates lower levels of chlorophylls and carotenoids. These results indicate that VAR3 is a part of a protein complex required for normal chloroplast and palisade cell development
High-Throughput In Vitro Screening for Inhibitors of Cereal α-Glucosidase
No full textThe hydrolysis of starch is a key step in plant germination, which also has relevance in the malting and brewing processes for beer and spirit production. Gaps in knowledge about this metabolic process exist that cannot easily be addressed using traditional genetic techniques, due to functional redundancy in many of the enzyme activities required for alpha-glucan metabolism in cereal crop species. Chemical inhibitors provide opportunities to probe the role of carbohydrate-active enzymes and the phenotypes associated with inhibition of specific enzymes. Iminosugars are the largest group of carbohydrate-active enzyme inhibitors and represent an underused resource for the dissection of plant carbohydrate metabolism. Herein we report a method for carrying out a reverse chemical genetic screen on α-glucosidase, the enzyme that catalyzes the final step in starch degradation during plant germination, namely the hydrolysis of maltose to release glucose. This chapter outlines the use of a high-throughput screen of small molecules for inhibition of α-glucosidase using a colorimetric assay which involves the substrate p-nitrophenyl α-D-glucopyranoside. Identified inhibitors can be further utilized in phenotypic screens to probe the roles played by amylolytic enzymes. Furthermore this 96-well plate-based method can be adapted to assay exo-glycosidase activities involved in other aspects of carbohydrate metabolism
Production of enzymatically active recombinant full-length barley high pI alpha-glucosidase of glycoside family 31 by high cell-density fermentation of Pichia pastoris and affinity purification
No full textRecombinant barley high pI alpha-glucosidase was produced by high cell-density fermentation of Pichia pastoris expressing the cloned full-length gene. The gene was amplified from a genomic clone and exons (coding regions) were assembled by overlap PCR. The resulting cDNA was expressed under control of the alcohol oxidase 1 promoter using methanol induction of P. pastoris fermentation in a Biostat B 5 L reactor. Forty-two milligrams a-glucosidase was purified from 3.5 L culture in four steps applying an N-terminal hexa-histidine tag. The apparent molecular mass of the recombinant alpha-glucosidase was 100 kDa compared to 92 kDa of the native barley enzyme. The secreted recombinant enzyme was highly stabile during the 5-day fermentation and had significantly superior specific activity of the enzyme purified previously from barley malt. The kinetic parameters K-m, V-max, and k(cat) were determined to 1.7 mM, 139 nM x s(-1), and 85 s(-1) using maltose as substrate. This work presents the first production of fully active recombinant alpha-glucosidase of glycoside hydrolase family 31 from higher plants. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Phosphorylation sites of Arabidopsis MAP Kinase Substrate 1 (MKS1)
No full textThe Arabidopsis MAP kinase 4 (MPK4) substrate MKS1 was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified, full-length, 6x histidine (His)-tagged MKS1 was phosphorylated in vitro by hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged MPK4 immuno-precipitated from plants. MKS1 phosphorylation was initially verified by electrophoresis and gel-staining with ProQ Diamond and the protein was digested by either trypsin or chymotrypsin for maximum sequence coverage to facilitate identification of phosphorylated positions. Prior to analysis by mass spectrometry, samples were either desalted, passed over TiO2 or both for improved phosphopeptide detection. As MAP kinases generally phosphorylate serine or threonine followed by proline (Ser/Thr-Pro), theoretical masses of potentially phosphorylated peptides were calculated and mass spectrometric peaks matching these masses were fragmented and searched for a neutral-loss signal at similar to 98 Da indicative of phosphorylation. Additionally, mass spectrometric peaks present in the MPK4-treated MKS1, but not in the control peptide map of untreated MKS1, were fragmented. Fragmentation spectra were subjected to a MASCOT database search which identified three of the twelve Ser-Pro serine residues (Ser72, Set108, Ser120) in the phosphorylated form
The Role of alpha-Glucosidase in Germinating Barley Grains
No full textThe importance of alpha-glucosidase in the endosperm starch metabolism of barley (Hordeum vulgare) seedlings is poorly understood. The enzyme converts maltose to glucose (Glc), but in vitro studies indicate that it can also attack starch granules. To discover its role in vivo, we took complementary chemical-genetic and reverse-genetic approaches. We identified iminosugar inhibitors of a recombinant form of an alpha-glucosidase previously discovered in barley endosperm (ALPHA-GLUCOSIDASE97 [HvAGL97]), and applied four of them to germinating grains. All four decreased the Glc-to-maltose ratio in the endosperm 10 d after imbibition, implying inhibition of maltase activity. Three of the four inhibitors also reduced starch degradation and seedling growth, but the fourth did not affect these parameters. Inhibition of starch degradation was apparently not due to inhibition of amylases. Inhibition of seedling growth was primarily a direct effect of the inhibitors on roots and coleoptiles rather than an indirect effect of the inhibition of endosperm metabolism. It may reflect inhibition of glycoprotein-processing glucosidases in these organs. In transgenic seedlings carrying an RNA interference silencing cassette for HvAgl97, alpha-glucosidase activity was reduced by up to 50%. There was a large decrease in the Glc-to-maltose ratio in these lines but no effect on starch degradation or seedling growth. Our results suggest that the alpha-glucosidase HvAGL97 is the major endosperm enzyme catalyzing the conversion of maltose to Glc but is not required for starch degradation. However, the effects of three glucosidase inhibitors on starch degradation in the endosperm indicate the existence of unidentified glucosidase(s) required for this process
Arabidopsis MAP kinase 4 negatively regulates systemic acquired resistance
No full textTransposon inactivation of Arabidopsis MAP kinase 4 produced the mpk4 mutant exhibiting constitutive systemic acquired resistance (SAR) including elevated salicylic acid (SA) revels, increased resistance to virulent pathogens, and constitutive pathogenesis-related gene expression shown by Northern and microarray hybridizations. MPK4 kinase activity is required to repress SAR, as an inactive MPK4 form failed to complement mpk4. Analysis of mpk4 expressing the SA hydroxylase NahG and of mpk4/npr1 double mutants indicated that SAR expression in mpk4 is dependent upon elevated SA levels but is independent of NPR1. PDF1.2 and THI2.1 gene induction by jasmonate was blocked in mpk4 expressing NahG, suggesting that MPK4 is required for jasmonic acid-responsive gene expression
Consistent manufacturing and quality control of a highly complex recombinant polyclonal antibody product for human therapeutic use
No full textRoles of multiple surface sites, long substrate binding clefts, and carbohydrate binding modules in the action of amylolytic enzymes on polysaccharide substrates
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