Cloning and characterization of a novel CoA-ligase gene from Penicillium chrysogenum.

A novel phenylacetic acid (PAA)-induced CoA-ligase-encoding gene, designated as phlC, has been cloned from penicillin-producing fungus Penicillium chrysogenum. The open reading frame of phlC cDNA was 1671 bp and encoded a 556 amino acid residues protein with the consensus AMP binding site and a peroxisomal targeting signal 1 on its C terminus. The deduced amino acid sequence showed 37% and 38% identity with characterized P. chrysogenum Phl and PhlB protein, respectively. Functional recombinant PhlC protein was overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The purified recombinant enzyme was capable to convert PAA into its corresponding CoA ester with a specific activity of 129.5 ± 3.026 pmol/min per mg protein. Similar to Phl and PhlB, PhlC displayed broad substrate spectrum and showed higher activities to medium- and long-chain fatty acids. The catalytic properties of PhlC have been determined and compared to those of Phl and PhlB.

Impacts of different promoters on the mammalian one-hybrid assay for detecting nuclear receptor agonists.

Nuclear receptors are a superfamily of ligand-activated transcription factors that play key roles in many biological processes, and have become one class of the most important targets in drug discovery. Mammalian one-hybrid system has been used to develop a cell-based functional transactivation high-throughput screening (HTS) assay for detecting nuclear receptors ligands. In the present study, we proved that different promoters used in the reporter vector had significant different impacts on the performance of HTS assays. The assay using the SV40 promoter in the reporter vector showed the characteristics of much higher signal/noise ratios, acceptable Z' factors (>0.6), low coefficient variation (<12.5%) and higher hits rate, which could be more robust, reproducible, and sensitive. In contrast, utilizing a TATA box promoter in the assay resulted in higher variance and low sensitivity. In addition, it was found that the assay using SV40 had longer signal decay time and was easier to be miniaturized in 384-well format. It has been confirmed that the choice of a promoter is a critical factor in developing a reporter gene HTS assay. However, the SV40 promoter used in the present study has been shown to be more adaptable than the minimal promoter TATA box in the Mammalian one-hybrid HTS assays for detecting nuclear receptor agonists.

Cloning and functional identification of C-4 methyl sterol oxidase genes from the penicillin-producing fungus Penicillium chrysogenum.

Two C-4 methyl sterol oxidase genes (Pcerg25A and Pcerg25B) that are involved in ergosterol biosynthesis have been cloned from the penicillin-producing fungus Penicillium chrysogenum. cDNAs of both Pcerg25A and Pcerg25B have an ORF 885 bp in length, encoding a peptide of 295 residues. The deduced amino acid sequences of PcErg25A and PcErg25B show 86% identity, and have high identities to the characterized C-4 methyl sterol oxidases from Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The function of Pcerg25A and Pcerg25B was identified by complementation of a yeast erg25-deficient strain. Pcerg25A is located in the DNA region containing the penicillin gene cluster, and thus its copy number is dependent on the patterns of the cluster region. Up to eight copies of Pcerg25A were found in the high-productivity strain NCPC 10086. By contrast, Pcerg25B was present in just a single copy in all tested P. chrysogenum genomes. Differences in the transcript level of either Pcerg25A or Pcerg25B were observed in different P. chrysogenum strains by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR analysis.

Molecular cloning and functional identification of a novel phenylacetyl-CoA ligase gene from Penicillium chrysogenum.

A novel phenylacetyl-CoA ligase gene, designated phlB, was cloned and identified from the penicillin producing strain Penicillium chrysogenum based on subtractive suppression hybridization approach. The phlB gene contains a 1686-bp open-reading frame and encodes a protein of approximately 62.6 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence shows about 35% identity to the characterized P. chrysogenum phenylacetyl-CoA ligase Phl and has a peroxisomal targeting signal on its C-terminal. Recombinant PhlB protein was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified by nickel affinity chromatography. Enzymatic assay confirmed that recombinant PhlB can catalyze the reaction of phenylacetic acid (PAA) with CoA to yield phenylacetyl-CoA. The expression level of phlB in the penicillin producing medium supplemented with PAA, the side chain precursor of penicillin G, was about 2.5-fold higher than that in medium without PAA. The study suggested that PhlB might participate in the activation of PAA during penicillin biosynthesis in P. chrysogenum.

Isolation and characterization of N98-1272 A, B and C, selective acetylcholinesterase inhibitors from metabolites of an actinomycete strain.

A high throughput screening was carried out in order to search for inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) from microorganism metabolites. An actinomycete strain was found to produce active compounds named N98-1272 A, B and C with IC50 of 15.0, 11.5, 12.5 microM, respectively. Structural studies revealed that the three compounds are identical to the known antibiotics, Manumycin C, B and A. Kinetic analyses showed that N98-1272 C (Manumycin A) acted as a reversible noncompetitive inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase, with a Ki value of 7.2 microM. The cyclohexenone epoxide part of the structure plays a crucial role in the inhibitory activity against AChE. Compared with Tacrine, N98-1272 A, B, and C exhibit much better selectivity toward AChE over BuChE.

A cell-based high-throughput screening assay for Farnesoid X receptor agonists.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a high-throughput screening assay for Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) agonists based on mammalian one-hybrid system (a chimera receptor gene system) for the purpose of identifying new lead compounds for dyslipidaemia drug from the chemical library. METHODS: cDNA encoding the human FXR ligand binding domain (LBD) was amplified by RT-PCR from a human liver total mRNA and fused to the DNA binding domain (DBD) of yeast GAL4 of pBIND to construct a GAL4-FXR (LBD) chimera expression plasmid. Five copies of the GAL4 DNA binding site were synthesized and inserted into upstream of the SV40 promoter of pGL3-promoter vector to construct a reporter plasmid pG5-SV40 Luc. The assay was developed by transient co-transfection with pG5-SV40 Luc reporter plasmid and pBIND-FXR-LBD (189-472) chimera expression plasmid. RESULTS: After optimization, CDCA, a FXR natural agonist, could induce expression of the luciferase gene in a dose-dependent manner, and had a signal/noise ratio of 10 and Z' factor value of 0.65. CONCLUSION: A stable and sensitive cell-based high-throughput screening model can be used in high-throughput screening for FXR agonists from the synthetic and natural compound library.