[Expression of recombinant human alanine aminotransferase (ALT) isoenzyme 2 and preparation of anti-ALT2 monoclonal antibody].

AIM: To clone and express human alanine aminotransferase 2 (ALT2) in E.coli Rosetta (DE3), and to prepare monoclonal antibodies(mAb) against ALT2 for diagnostic purpose. METHODS: The gene encoding alanine aminotransferase 2 (ALT2) was cloned from hepatoma carcinoma cell by RT-PCR, and then inserted into pET28a vector. Recombination plasmids (pET28a-ALT2) were transformed into E.coli BL21. Human ALT2 was expressed as His-tagged fusion proteins and purified by immobilized Ni(2+);-affinity chromatography. The purified fusion ALT2 protein was used as an antigen to prepare mAb against it. RESULTS: The fusion ALT2 protein was expressed in recombinant E.coli Rosetta (DE3). The enzymatic activity of purified His-tag ALT2 is over 10 000 U/L. Mice were immunized with the purified fusion ALT2 protein, and 5 mAbs against ALT2 were generated. CONCLUSION: Two mAbs with high specificity for ALT2 were selected for further quantitative diagnostic reagent development.

[Deletion of spiramycin 3-O-acyltransferase gene from Streptomyces spiramyceticus F21 resulting in the production of spiramycin I as major component].

Spiramycin (SP) belongs to the 16-member macrolide antibiotics. It contains three components,namely SP I, SP II and SP III, which differ structurally in the acylation moieties on the C3 of the lactone. The SP I component contains a hydroxyl group at C3. SP II, and SP III are formed by further acetylation or propionylation of the C3 of SP I, by the same 3-O-acyltransferase (3-O-AT) . The study focused on simplifying spiramycin components. Theoretically, disruption/deletion of the 3-O-AT gene will reduce/stop the acylation of SP I to SP II and SP III. In this study, degenerated primers were designed according to the conserved regions of 3-O-acyltransferase, MdmB and AcyA in the medicamycin and carbomycin producers of S. mycarofaciens and S. thermotolerans, respectively, and an 878bp DNA fragment was amplified from the spiramycin-producer of S. spiramyceticus F21. Blast analysis of the 878bp DNA fragment suggested that it encoded the 3-O-acyltransferase (3-0-AT, sspA) gene for spiramycin biosynthesis. The flanking regions of this 878bp DNA fragment were then amplified by single-oligonucleotide-nested PCR, and a total of 4.3 kb DNA was obtained (3457nt among the 4.3kb fragment was sequenced, and deposited in GenBank DQ642742),covering the whole putative 3-O-acyltransferase gene, sspA. The sspA was then deleted from the S. spiramyceticus F21 genome by double cross-over homologous recombination, mediated by temperature-sensitive plasmid pKC1139. A comparison was done of the components of spiramycins produced by the sspA-deleted mutant strain with that of the parent strain by HPLC analysis, which showed that sspA-deleted mutant produced SP I (72%), SP II (18%), and SP III (9.6%), whereas parent strain produced SP I (7.8%), SP II (67%), and SP III (25%), respectively, demonstrating the role of ssp A in the acylation of SP I into SP II and SP III. The ssp A-deleted mutant strain obtained in this study may be used for the production of SP I, or may serve as a good starter for the construction of spiramycin derivatives.

[Cloning of mMR-1 gene and expression in Pichia pastoris systems].

hMR-1 (Homo Myofibrillogenesis Regulator 1, AF417001) is a novel homo gene, which was firstly cloned in our laboratory. The former studies revealed that hMR-1 is a transmembrane protein which shows protein interaction with sarcomeric proteins like myomesin I, myosin regulatory light chain, alpha-enolase and some cell regulator proteins such as eukaryotic translation initiation factor3 subunit 5 (eIF3S5) and etc. In this work, we focused on cloning the homologous gene of hMR-1 from mouse C57BL/6J and exploring its expression using Pichia pastoris yeast system. Two pairs of primers were synthesized according to the hMR-1 gene homologous sequence on mouse genome chromosome 1. The mouse MR-1 gene (mMR-1) was cloned by PCR following the first round RT-PCR from mouse C57BL/6J spleen total RNA. Sequence analysis verified that mMR-1 gene and amino acids sequence showed 90.4% and 90.1% identity with hMR-1, respectively. The prediction of hydrophobic transmembrane structure of mMR-1 suggested it is also a transmembrane protein. The mMR-1 Pichia pastoris expression vector pPIC9-mMR-1 was constructed by fusion of the flanking mMR-1 ORF in the pPIC9 plasmid. After linearization of pPIC9-mMR-1 with Sal I, the 8.5kb DNA fragment was transformed into Pichia pastoris GS115 strain by electroporation. GS115/Mut+ pPIC9-mMR-1 transformants were selected on minimal methanol medium. Integration of mMR-1 gene into the yeast genome in the recombinants was verified by PCR from the transformants total DNA. The mMR-1 protein was expressed by induction under the concentration of 0.5 % methanol. The specific induced protein of 25 kD molecular mass in SDS-PAGE was confirmed to be the mMR-1 protein by Western blot rsing hMR-1 polyclonal antibody. The expression level of this recombinant mMR-1 protein was about 50 mg/L. The successful expression of mMR-1 in the Pichia pastoris GS115 will facilitate the further functional analysis of the novel gene MR-1 in animal model.