Uniform Expression and Relatively Small Position Effects Characterize Sister Transformants in Maize and Soybean.

Development of transgenic cell lines or organisms for industrial, agricultural, or medicinal applications involves inserting DNA into the target genome in a way that achieves efficacious transgene expression without a deleterious impact on fitness. The genomic insertion site is widely recognized as an important determinant of success. However, the effect of chromosomal location on transgene expression and fitness has not been systematically investigated in plants. Here we evaluate the importance of transgene insertion site in maize and soybean using both random and site-specific transgene integration. We have compared the relative contribution of genomic location on transgene expression levels with other factors, including cis-regulatory elements, neighboring transgenes, genetic background, and zygosity. As expected, cis-regulatory elements and the presence/absence of nearby transgene neighbors can impact transgene expression. Surprisingly, we determined not only that genomic location had the least impact on transgene expression compared to the other factors that were investigated but that the majority of insertion sites recovered supported transgene expression levels that were statistically not distinguishable. All 68 genomic sites evaluated were capable of supporting high-level transgene expression, which was also consistent across generations. Furthermore, multilocation field evaluation detected no to little decrease in agronomic performance as a result of transgene insertion at the vast majority of sites we evaluated with a single construct in five maize hybrid backgrounds.

The interdigitated beta-helix domain of the P22 tailspike protein acts as a molecular clamp in trimer stabilization.

The P22 tailspike adhesin is an elongated thermostable trimer resistant to protease digestion and to denaturation in sodium dodecyl sulfate. Monomeric, dimeric, and protrimeric folding and assembly intermediates lack this stability and are thermolabile. In the native trimer, three right-handed parallel beta-helices (residues 143-540), pack side-by-side around the three-fold axis. After residue 540, these single chain beta-helices terminate and residues 541-567 of the three polypeptide chains wrap around each other to form a three-stranded interdigitated beta-helix. Three mutants located in this region -- G546D, R563Q, and A575T -- blocked formation of native tailspike trimers, and accumulated soluble forms of the mutant polypeptide chains within cells. The substitutions R563Q and A575T appeared to prevent stable association of partially folded monomers. G546D, in the interdigitated region of the chain, blocked tailspike folding at the transition from the partially-folded protrimer to the native trimer. The protrimer-like species accumulating in the G546D mutant melted out at 42 degrees C and was trypsin and SDS sensitive. The G546D defect was not corrected by introduction of global suppressor mutations, which correct kinetic defects in beta-helix folding. The simplest interpretation of these results is that the very high thermostability (T(m) = 88 degrees C), protease and detergent resistance of the native tailspike acquired in the protrimer-to-trimer transition, depends on the formation of the three-stranded interdigitated region. This interdigitated beta-helix appears to function as a molecular clamp insuring thermostable subunit association in the native trimer.

Mutagenesis of basic residues R151 and R161 in manganese-stabilizing protein of photosystem II causes inefficient binding of chloride to the oxygen-evolving complex.

Manganese-stabilizing protein of photosystem II, an intrinsically disordered polypeptide, contains a high ratio of charged to hydrophobic amino acid residues. Arg151 and Arg161 are conserved in all known MSP sequences. To examine the role of these basic residues in MSP structure and function, three mutants of spinach MSP, R151G, R151D, and R161G, were produced. Here, we present evidence that replacement of Arg151 or Arg161 yields proteins that have lower PSII binding affinity, and are functionally deficient even though about 2 mol of mutant MSP/mol PSII can be rebound to MSP depleted PSII membranes. R161G reconstitutes O(2) evolution activity to 40% of the control, while R151G and R151D reconstitute only 20% of the control activity. Spectroscopic and biochemical techniques fail to detect significant changes in solution structure. More extensive O(2) evolution assays revealed that the Mn cluster is stable in samples reconstituted with each mutated MSP, and that all three Arg mutants have the same ability to retain Ca(2+) as the wild-type protein. Activity assays exploring the effect of these mutations on retention of Cl(-), however, showed that the R151G, R151D, and R161G MSPs are defective in Cl(-) binding to the OEC. The mutants have Cl(-) K(M) values that are about four (R161G) or six times (R151G and R151D) higher than the value for the wild-type protein. The results reported here suggest that conserved positive charges on the manganese-stabilizing protein play a role in proper functional assembly of the protein into PSII, and, consequently, in retention of Cl(-) by the O(2)-evolving complex.

N-terminus of the photosystem II manganese stabilizing protein: effects of sequence elongation and truncation.

The importance of the N-terminal domain of manganese stabilizing protein in binding to photosystem II has been previously demonstrated [Eaton-Rye and Murata (1989) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 977, 219-226; Odom and Bricker (1992) Biochemistry 31, 5616-5620]. In this paper, we report results from a systematic study of functional and structural consequences of N-terminal elongation and truncation of manganese stabilizing protein. Precursor manganese stabilizing protein is the unprocessed wild-type protein, which carries an N-terminal extension of 84 amino acids in the form of its chloroplastic signal peptide. Despite its increased size, this protein is able to reconstitute O(2) evolution activity to levels observed with the mature, processed protein, but it also binds nonspecifically to PSII. Truncation of wild-type manganese stabilizing protein by site-directed mutagenesis to remove three N-terminal amino acids, resulting in a mutant called DeltaG3M, causes no loss of activity reconstitution, but this protein also exhibits nonspecific binding. Further truncation of the wild-type protein by ten N-terminal amino acids, producing DeltaE10M, limits binding of manganese stabilizing protein to 1 mol/mol of photosystem II and decreases activity reconstitution to about 65% of that obtained with the wild-type protein. Because two copies of wild type normally bind to photosystem II, amino acids in the domain (4)K-(10)E must be involved in the binding of one copy of manganese stabilizing protein to photosystem II. Spectroscopic analysis (CD and UV spectra) reveals that N-terminal elongation and deletion of manganese stabilizing protein influence its overall conformation, even though secondary structure content is not perturbed. Our data suggest that the solution structure of manganese stabilizing protein attains a more compact solution structure upon removal of N-terminal amino acids.