Construction of a new fusion protein vector associated to fibronectin binding protein A and clumping factor A derived from Staphylococcus aureus NCTC 8325

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of many nosocomial and community acquired infections. According to many reports, antibiotic therapy cannot guarantee the eradication of S. aureus infections. Thus designing an adhesin based vaccine could restrain the S. aureus infections. This study designed for construction of a new fusion protein vaccine against S. aureus infections based on adhesin molecules fibronectin binding protein A [FnBPA] and clumping factor A [ClfA]. Bioinformatic experiments were performed using Oligo analyzer and DNAMAN softwares. The fragments corresponding to fnbA binding domain and a C-terminal fragment from clfA were amplified from S. aureus NCTC8325 genomic DNA. Purified PCR products and the vector, pET15b, were digested with NcoI and BamHI. The digested PCR products were hybridized together and then ligated to digested vector. Finally incomplete construct was assembled by Taq DNA polymerase. To quick confirmation of cloning procedure the new construct designated pfnbA-clfA was digested with NcoI and BamHI. To further verification, the product was sent for sequencing. The data based on bioinformatics analysis showed no homology between fusion protein and human proteins. Digestion of new vector with NcoI and BamHI confirmed the ligation of fusion protein sequence into pET15b. Sequencing results verified the integrity of target sequences. This study is the first effort to construct a new fusion protein vector based on S. aureus adhesins using a new design. This project is being continued to study the expression and biological activity of the fusion protein in a cell culture model

Regional assignment of the rat alpha - fetoprotein gene [AFP] to chromosome 14 p 21 - p 22

The gene encoding alpha fetoprotein [locus symbol Afp] was assigned to rat chromosome p21-p22 using fluorescence in situ hybridization method. The present result suggests that there is a conserved syntenic group between human 4q11-q13, mouse 5F-G, and rat 14p21-p22