Overexpression of Bax inhibitor suppresses the fungal elicitor-induced cell death in rice (Oryza sativa L) cells.

Treatment of suspension-cultured cells of rice (Oryza sativa L.) with cell wall extract of rice blast fungus (Magnaporthe grisea) elicits a rapid generation of H2O2, alkalinization of culture medium, and eventual cell death. To elucidate genes involved in these processes, we exploited SAGE (Serial Analysis of Gene Expression) technique for the molecular analysis of cell death in suspension-cultured cells treated with the elicitor. Among the downregulated genes in the elicitor-treated cells, a BI-1 gene coding for Bax inhibitor was identified. Transgenic rice cells overexpressing Arabidopsis BI-1 gene showed sustainable cell survival when challenged with M. grisea elicitor. Thus, the plant Bax inhibitor plays a functional role in regulating cell death in the rice cell culture system.

Overexpression of the wasabi defensin gene confers enhanced resistance to blast fungus ( Magnaporthe grisea) in transgenic rice.

Transgenic rice ( Oryza sativa cv. Sasanishiki) overexpressing the wasabi defensin gene, a plant defensin effective against the rice blast fungus, was generated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. Twenty-two T2 homozygous lines harboring the wasabi defensin gene were challenged by the blast fungus. Transformants exhibited resistance to rice blast at various levels. The inheritance of the resistance over generations was investigated. T3 plants derived from two highly blast-resistant T2 lines (WT14-5 and WT43-5) were challenged with the blast fungus using the press-injured spots method. The average size of disease lesions of the transgenic line WT43-5 was reduced to about half of that of non-transgenic plants. The 5-kDa peptide, corresponding to the processed form of the wasabi defensin, was detected in the total protein fraction extracted from the T3 progeny. Transgenic rice plants overproducing wasabi defensin are expected to possess a durable and wide-spectrum resistance (i.e. field resistance) against various rice blast races.

Characterization of the pro-aminopeptidase from Aeromonas caviae T-64.

The pro-aminopeptidase from Aeromonas caviae T-64 (pro-apAC) had maximal activity at 60 degrees C and was more stable than mature apAC at temperature up to 65 degrees C for 1 hour. The pH stability of pro-apAC ranged from 4.0 to 8.0, which is broader than the range for the mature apAC. The kcat/Km of pro-apAC was 1.4% to 24% of that of mature apAC.

Function of the N-terminal propeptide of an aminopeptidase from Vibrio proteolyticus.

An aminopeptidase from Vibrio proteolyticus was translated as a preproprotein consisting of four domains: a signal peptide, an N-terminal propeptide, a mature region and a C-terminal propeptide. Protein expression and analysis of the activity results demonstrated that the N-terminal propeptide was essential to the formation of the active enzyme in Escherichia coli. Urea dissolution of inclusion bodies and dialysis indicated that the N-terminal propeptide could facilitate the correct folding of the enzyme in vitro. Using L-Leu-p-nitroanilide as the substrate, the kinetic parameters (k(cat) and K(m)) of the pro-aminopeptidase and processed aminopeptidases were analysed. The results suggested that the N-terminal propeptide inhibited enzyme activity of the mature region. In contrast, the C-terminal propeptide did not show evidence of forming an active enzyme, of correctly folding in vitro or of inhibiting the active region.

Characterization of a solvent resistant and thermostable aminopeptidase from the hyperthermophillic bacterium, Aquifex aeolicus.

A leucine aminopeptidase gene of Aquifex aeolicus, a hyperthermophilic bacterium, was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and its expression product was purified and characterized. The expressed protein was purified to homogeneity by using heat to denature contaminating proteins followed by ion-exchange chromatography to purify the heat-stable product. The purified enzyme gave a single band on SDS-PAGE with a molecular weight of 54 kDa. Kinetic studies on the purified enzyme confirmed that it was a leucine aminopeptidase. The optimum temperature for its activity was around 80 degrees C and the optimum pH was in the range from 8.0 to 8.5. It was stable at high temperatures and 27% of its activity was retained after heating at 115 degrees C for 30 min. The purified enzyme had a pH stability range between 4.0 and 11.0. This aminopeptidase was highly resistant to organic solvents such as methanol, ethanol, tetrahydrofuran, dimethyl sulfoxide, acetone, acetonitrile, dimethyl formamide, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, and dioxane.

Molecular cloning and expression in Escherichia coli of the extracellular endoprotease of Aeromonas caviae T-64, a pro-aminopeptidase processing enzyme(1).

PA protease (pro-aminopeptidase processing protease) activates the pro-aminopeptidases from Aeromonas caviae T-64 and Vibrio proteolytica by removal of their pro-regions. Cloning and sequencing of the PA protease gene revealed that PA protease was translated as a preproprotein consisting of four domains: a signal peptide; an N-terminal propeptide; a mature region; and a C-terminal propeptide. The deduced amino acid sequence of the PA protease precursor showed significant homology with several bacterial metalloproteases. Expression of the PA protease gene in Escherichia coli indicated that the N-terminal propeptide of the PA protease precursor is essential to obtain the active form of the protease. The N- and C-terminal propeptides of the expressed pro-PA protease were processed autocatalytically.

Intramolecular chaperone and inhibitor activities of a propeptide from a bacterial zinc aminopeptidase.

An aminopeptidase from Aeromonas caviae T-64 was translated as a preproprotein consisting of three domains; a signal peptide (19 amino acid residues), an N-terminal propeptide (101 residues) and a mature region (273 residues). We demonstrated that a proteinase, which was isolated from the culture filtrate of A. caviae T-64, activated the recombinant pro-aminopeptidase by removal of the majority of the propeptide. Using L-Leu-p-nitroanilide as a substrate, the processed aminopeptidase showed a large increase in kcat when compared with the unprocessed enzyme, whereas the Km value remained relatively unchanged. The similar Km values for the pro-aminopeptidase and the mature aminopeptidase indicated that the N-terminal propeptide of the pro-aminopeptidase did not influence the formation of the enzyme-substrate complex, suggesting the absence of marked conformational changes in the active domain. In contrast, the marked difference in kcat suggests a significant decrease in the energy of one or more of the transition states of the enzyme-substrate reaction coordinate. Moreover, we showed that the activity of the urea-denatured pro-aminopeptidase could be recovered by dialysis, whereas the activity of the urea-denatured mature aminopeptidase, which lacked the propeptide, could not. Further to this, the propeptide-deleted aminopeptidase formed an inclusion body in the cytoplasmic space in Escherichia coli and was not secreted at all. These results suggested that the propeptide of the pro-aminopeptidase acted as an intramolecular chaperone that was involved with the correct folding of the enzyme in vitro and was required for extracellular secretion in E. coli.

Cloning and expression of the N-acetylmuramidase gene from Streptomyces rutgersensis H-46.

The N-acetylmuramidase SR1 gene from Streptomyces rutgersensis H-46 was cloned in Escherichia coli JM109 and expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS. An open reading frame included the leader peptide region encoding a polypeptide of 65 amino acid residues and the mature SR1 enzyme region encoding a polypeptide of 209 amino acid residues. The overall G + C content of the mature enzyme gene was 67.6%, with 98.1% of G or C in the third position of the codons. The calculated molecular weight of the mature enzyme was 23,057 Da. The amino acid sequence of the mature enzyme showed a significant level of identity with bacteriolytic enzymes from Streptomyces globisporus (50.9% identity), Chalaropsis species (40.2% identity) and Saccharopolyspora erythraea (31.0% identity). The mature enzyme gene cloned into plasmid pET26b carrying a signal peptide, peIB, was expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS. The signal peptide region was cleaved during the production of the enzyme. Specific activity of the enzyme purified from the transformant was almost identical to that of the native enzyme. Furthermore, the SR1 enzyme gene cloned with the leader peptide gene into plasmid pET28a was also expressed in E. coli. In this case, a proform-like protein was partially processed; 35 amino acid residues were cleaved but 30 amino acid residues remained. This proform like protein has approximately one-nineteenth the activity of the native enzyme. These results indicated that the native SR1 enzyme was produced in the following manner in the cells of S. rutgersensis H-46. The SR1 enzyme gene was translated to a pre-proform protein followed by the deletion of a signal peptide. Finally, the proform-like protein was processed by deletion of the remaining leader peptide.

Technical advance: transcript profiling in rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings using serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE)

Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) was applied for profiling expressed genes in rice seedlings. In the SAGE method, a 9-11 bp fragment (tag) represents each transcript, and frequency of a tag in the sample directly reflects the abundance of the respective mRNA. We studied 10 122 tags derived from 5921 expressed genes in rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings, among which only 1367 genes (23.1%) matched the rice cDNA or EST sequences in the DNA database. SAGE showed that most of the highly expressed genes in rice seedlings belong to the category of housekeeping genes (genes encoding ribosomal proteins or proteins responsible for metabolism and cell structure). Unexpectedly, the most highly expressed gene in rice seedlings was a metallothionein (MT) gene, and together with three other messages for MT, it accounts for 2.7% of total gene expression. To our knowledge, this is the first quantitative study of global gene expression in a higher plant. We further applied the SAGE technique to identify differentially expressed genes between anaerobically treated and untreated rice seedlings. Additionally, we show that a longer cDNA fragment can be easily recovered by PCR using the SAGE tag sequence as a primer, thereby facilitating the analysis of unknown genes identified by tag sequence in SAGE. In combination with micro-array analysis, SAGE should serve as a highly efficient tool for the identification and isolation of differentially expressed genes in plants.

Cloning and sequencing of a cDNA encoding a heat-stable sweet protein, mabinlin II.

A cDNA clone encoding a heat-stable sweet protein, mabinlin II (MAB), was isolated and sequenced. The encoded precursor to MAB was composed of 155 amino acid (aa) residues, including a signal sequence of 20 aa, an N-terminal extension peptide of 15 aa, a linker peptide of 14 aa and one residue of C-terminal extension. Comparison of the proteolytic cleavage sites during post-translational processing of MAB precursor with those of like 2S seed-storage proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica napus and Bertholletia excelsa shows that the three individual cleavage sites between respective species are conserved.

Cloning and sequencing of a cDNA encoding a taste-modifying protein, miraculin.

A cDNA clone encoding a taste-modifying protein, miraculin (MIR), was isolated and sequenced. The encoded precursor to MIR was composed of 220 amino acid (aa) residues, including a possible signal sequence of 29 aa. Northern blot analysis showed that the mRNA encoding MIR was already expressed in fruits of Richadella dulcifica at 3 weeks after pollination and was present specifically in the pulp.

Structures of heat-stable and unstable homologues of the sweet protein mabinlin. The difference in the heat stability is due to replacement of a single amino acid residue.

There are several analogues of the sweet protein mabinlin. In previous studies, we purified the heat-stable analogue, mabinlin II, from the seeds of Capparis masaikai Lévl. and determined its amino acid sequence [Liu, X., Maeda, S., Hu, Z., Aiuchi, T., Nakaya, K. & Kurihara, Y. (1993) Eur. J. Biochem. 211, 281-287] and the disulfide structure [Nirasawa, S., Liu, X., Nishino, T. & Kurihara, Y. (1993) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1202, 277-280]. We have now purified four additional homologues of mabinlin. The sweet activities of mabinlin III and mabinlin IV were unchanged by incubation for 1 h at 80 degrees C, as was found previously for mabinlin II, while the sweet activity of mabinlin I-1 was completely abolished by a 1-h incubation at 80 degrees C. The circular dichroic spectrum showed that alpha-helical structures of mabinlins II-IV were unchanged by the 1-h incubation at 80 degrees C, while the alpha-helical structures of mabinlin I-1 were completely destroyed by the 1-h incubation in parallel with the decrease of the sweet activity. To compare the structures of the heat-stable and unstable homologues, we determined their amino acid sequences and the disulfide array. The positions of four disulfide bridges of mabinlin I-1 were the same as those of mabinlin II, suggesting that the disulfide bridges do not contribute to the difference in the heat stability among the homologues. There was a high similarity among amino acid sequences of the homologoues. Only three amino acid residues (A-chain residues at positions 22 and 32 and B-chain residue at position 47) were different between mabinlin I-1 and mabinlin III. A-chain residue at position 32 was lacking in mabinlin IV and the A-chain residue at position 22 was identical in both mabinlin I-1 and mabinlin II. The B-chain residue at position 47 was the only residue present in all three heat-stable homologues (mabinlins II-IV) and is not present in the unstable homologue (mabinlin I-1). This suggests that the difference in the heat stability of mabinlin is due to the difference in a B-chain residue at position 47; the difference in the heat-stable homologues is due to the presence of an arginine residue and the difference of the unstable homologue is due to the presence of glutamine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Disulfide bridge structure of the heat-stable sweet protein mabinlin II.

The heat-stable sweet protein mabinlin was composed of a A-chain of 33 amino-acid residues and a B-chain of 72 amino-acid residues (Liu, X., Maeda, S., Hu, Z., Aiuchi, T., Nakaya, K. and Kurihara, Y. (1993) Eur. J. Biochem. 211, 281-287). A-chain and B-chain contain two and six cysteine residues, respectively. The formation of two interchain disulfide bridges at Cys(A5)-Cys(B21) and Cys(A18)-Cys(B10), and two intrachain disulfide bridges at Cys(B11)-Cys(B59) and Cys(B23)-Cys(B67) were determined by amino-acid sequencing and composition analysis of cystine-containing peptides isolated by HPLC. Cleavage of the disulfide bridges with dithiothreitol results in complete loss of the sweet activity of mabinlin II. It was suggested that the structure fixed by four disulfide bridges contributes to heat stability of mabinlin II.