Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 8, Issue 3, 2001

This review shortly summarizes the structural and functional properties of ceruloplasmin, the blue copper oxidase of vertebrates. Particular emphasis will be put on the unique copper stoichiometry of ceruloplasmin in comparison to all other multi-copper oxidases, and different hypotheses will be discussed to explain the apparently useless redundancy of type 1 copper ions in the vertebrate oxidase.

ABri is a 34 residue polypeptide that forms amyloid fibrils in Familial British Dementia (FBD). A PSI-Blast search, 3 different fold recognition programs and 3D model-building indicated that it has 3 beta-strands forming an antiparallel beta-sheet and a small C-terminal alpha-helix. In order to validate the prediction, the region coding the ABri polypeptide was cloned, expressed and purified from E.Coli. Circular Dichroism (CD Read More

Venoms from Bothrops jararcussu Bothrops asper Bothrops atrox Bothrops pirajai Bothrops moojeni Bothrops alternatus and Bothrops (Bothriopasis) bilineata were fractionated using a simplified procedure based on-exchange chromatography on CM-Sepharose at pH 8.0 or reverse phase HPLC.The resulting elution profilesshowed important differences in the myotoxin contentof these venoms.The venoms froms B.alt Read More

Viperine and crotaline snake venoms contain one or more hemorrhagic metalloproteinases called hemorrhagins. The most potent hemorrhagins belong to P-III class and have, in adition to the protease domain, a disintegrin-like and a cysteine-rich domains. Although proteolytic degradation of vascular endothelium basement membrane has been established to be the main factor responsible for hemorrhage, several studies rev Read More

Bodinierin, one of the major proteins in the kernels of camphor tree (Cinnamomum Bodinieri), has been identified as a novel type II ribosome-inactivating protein. Using sepharose-4B column chromatography followed by acid precipitation and ammonium sulfate precipitation, bodinierin has been purified to be homogeneous as characterized by SDS-PAGE. Bodinierin was composed of two chains (A- and B-chain) with the mole Read More

The total RNA was isolated from Bungarus multicinctus venom. A novel long neurotoxin (LNT) cDNA was amplified by RT-PCR method. Sequence analysis revealed that the cDNA of long neurotoxin has an open reading frame encoding 94 amino acids, including a signal peptide of 21 amino acids. The mature peptide encoding sequence was inserted into plasmid pET-28 (a+), and then which was expressed in the E. coli BL21 ( Read More

A new antifungal protein, named as GAFP-1, was purified from leaves of Ginkgo biloba L. Its Molecular weight identified by mass spectrometry is 25988.0 Da and pI is 4.3. The analysis of amino acids composition showed it has high percentages of Gly and Glu / Gln. The 15 N-terminal amino acid residues of GAFP-1 were determined. GAFP-1 could inhibit the hyphal growth of P. sasakii Ito, the IC50 towards P.sasakii Ito is 250mi Read More

Trimeresurus stejnegeri lectin (TSL) was expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris under the control of alcohol oxidase (AOX1) promoter. The recombinant protein, which was glycosylated, can be purified by one-step affinity chromatography. The purified recombinant TSL shared similar sugar-binding activity and Specificity with the native protein as determined by hemagglutination and enzyme-linked lectin binding Assays.

This work reportes the effects of isolated proteins from algaroba (Prosopis juliflo ra D.C.) seeds fractionated by ammonium sulfate at saturation 0-30percent., 30-60percent and 60-90percent. They were tested, in vitro, against papain and midgut homogenate of C. maculatus larvae. Also, the effects in vivo these protein fractions on the development of C. maculatus larvae were tested. F 30 / 60 fraction was effective against pa Read More

Cross-linking agents are useful for investigating the biological functions of biological polymers. Here we would like to report the preparation of a 4-hydroxyphenyldimethyl-sulfoniummethlysulfate (DSP) activated cross-linker that can cross-link proteins as a novel cross-linking agents. By using this cross-linker, gelatin can be cross-linked both in the sol-state at 40 degree centigrade and in the gel-state at 2 degree centigrade. The ch Read More

The formaldehyde dehydrogenease from Pseudomonas putida (PFDH), has been crystallized by the vapour diffusion method using ammonium sulfate as the Precipitating agent. The crystals belong to a trigonal space group P3 12 (or P3 12) with the cell dimensions of a = b = 85.74 A, and c = 190.9 A. There are two subunits per asymmetric unit. The crystals diffract to at least 2.2 A resolution using Cu K Alfa radiation at 100 Read More