Assessment of haemolytic, cytotoxic and free radical scavenging activities of an underutilized fruit, Baccaurea ramiflora Lour. (Roxb.) Muell. Arg.

Baccaurea ramiflora Lour. (Roxb.) Muell. Arg. is an underutilized juicy fruit bearing plant found in sub-Himalayan area, South China, Indo-Burma region, etc. The fruit is considered to be nutritive, and in this study, we evaluated its antioxidant, haemolytic and cytotoxic properties. The juice was examined for the quenching activity of hydroxyl radical, nitric oxide, singlet oxygen, peroxynitrite, total antioxidant activity (TAA), erythrocyte membrane stabilizing activity (EMSA) along with quantification of phenolic and flavonoid contents and also tested for its potential activity as iron chelator, inhibitor of lipid peroxidation and total reducing power. Principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were also performed to correlate antioxidant capacities with the phenolic and flavonoid content. Haemolytic activity on murine erythrocyte and MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) cytotoxic test was performed on murine splenocytes, thymocytes, hepatocytes and peritoneal exudates macrophage to examine the cytotoxic effect of its juice. The result exhibited its potent free radical scavenging activity. In case of TAA, DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl), EMSA and lipid peroxidation, the fruit juice was found to have significant (P <0.001) antioxidant capacity, which is evident from low IC50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration) value. Results obtained from haemolytic inhibition assay and MTT cytotoxic test confirms that the juice does not contain any cytotoxic effect and the fruit is safe for consumption. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra analysis exhibited high possibility of presence of flavonoid compounds in the juice.

Prokaryotic Expression and Purification of a Cotton Dehydration Responsive Element Binding Protein GhDBP1 and Its DNA Binding Activity / 生物化学与生物物理进展

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is one of the most important economic crops in the world. Its growth and productivity were affected by environment stresses such as drought, cold and high salinity. Thus, the enhanced stress tolerance in this plant is of great importance. As the dehydration responsive element (DRE) binding protein (DBP) plays an important role in the regulation of plant resistance to environmental stresses and is quite useful for generating transgenic plants tolerant to these stresses, isolation and functional analysis of DBPs in cotton are important to cotton production. In the previous work, a DBP gene from cotton, named as GhDBP1, was isolated and its expression patterns in cotton plants was demonstrated at the transcriptional level. Here, the expression,purification and DNA binding activity of GhDBP1 were reported. The entire coding region of the GhDBP1 gene was inserted into an expression vector, pET28a, and transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The fusion protein was successfully expressed under IPTG induction and the purified recombinant protein was obtained by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. Non-radioactive electrophoretic mobility shift assay revealed that the purified GhDBP1 protein was able to form a specific complex with the previously characterized DRE element. In addition, the computer modeling of the DNA-binding domain of GhDBP1 were performed using SWISS-MODEL software. The main-chain structures and the folding patterns of the DNA-binding domain of GhDBP1 were similar to the known structure of the DNA-binding domain of the Arabidopsis thaliana GCC box-binding protein AtERF1. These results indicate that GhDBP1 is a DRE-binding transcription factor and might use the structure similar to that of AtERF1 to interact with DRE sequence.

Prokaryotic Expression,Purification and DNA Binding Activity of DEK Protein's Carboxy-terminal DNA-binding Region / 中国生物工程杂志

DEK protein's carboxy-terminal DNA-binding region(CBD)is a newly found DNA-binding domain of DEK,which contains several phosphorylation sites and has a close correlation with DEK protein's function in vivo and in vitro.Using prokaryotic expression system,the peptide of DEK protein's carboxy-terminal DNA-binding region(CDB)was expressed and purified.In detail,the CDB DNA fragment was constructed into pET-30a(+)vector,and E.coli BL21(DE3)competent cells were used as host cells.The fusion protein His-CBD was expressed by induction of IPTG and purified by Ni-NTA agarose.The result of SDS-PAGE showed that the molecular weight of the purified protein was about 10.7kDa.Electrophoretic mobility shift assay(EMSA)indicated that DEK-CDB prefered to bind to supercoiled form of DNA in vitro,it had similar character to the binding of whole length DEK protein with DNA.This suggested that the carboxy-terminal DNA-binding region of DEK protein might function on the binding of DEK protein to DNA partly.

Determination of binding ability of PaP3’s terminase large subunit to cos site / 第三军医大学学报

Objective To investigate the binding ability of the terminase large subunit of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage PaP3 to the cos site. Methods The gene tls was amplified from the genome of bacteriophage PaP3 by PCR and subcloned into pMD18-T vector. Then the gene tls cut down from the vector was inserted into the plasmid pQE31 which could give a 6-His tag at the N-terminal of the expressed protein. The recombinant vector pQE-tls was transformed to E.coli. JM109, after induction with IPTG, the expressed bacteria were resuspended and sonicated, then after centrifugation, the inclusion body was obtained. The inclusion body was dissolved with lysis buffer, then the tagged protein was purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography and renatured by dialysis. Finally the DNA-binding ability of the fusion protein rTLS was determined by EMSA. Results The expression plasmid pQE31-tls was successfully constructed, and the target protein yield was up to 30% of the total bacterial proteins. After purification and renaturation, the fusion protein rTLS can partially bind the cos fragment. Conclusion The fusion protein rTLS was successfully expressed, purified and renatured. The rTLS has the specific DNA-binding activity. The present work lays the foundation for the further research of the gene tls.