截短绿色荧光蛋白突变体反式剪接修复核酶

Construction of a Trans-splicing Ribozyme for Restoring EGFP Truncation Mutation

Ⅰ型内含子核酶经过设计特定的信号引导序列(IGS),可特异性地定点剪接目的基因RNA,从而在RNA水平达到修复病变基因的目的。以四膜虫材料,克隆了其26SrRNA内含子核酶基因,体外转录证实该I型内含子核酶具有完全的自我剪接的功能。为检测该核酶的反式剪接功能,构建了缺失后半段564bp基因序列的绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)的截短突变体重组质粒XYQ5XYQ10pEGFPC2,并证实其失去了发射绿色荧光的活性。利用PCR和分子克隆技术,构建了以上EGFP突变体的反式剪接修复核酶ptransribCMV2,该核酶载体以克隆的26SRNA内含子为核心,选择EGFP编码区194位TG为剪接位点,以188193位设计IGS序列,核酶3′端携带195890bp的EGFP基因序列,连接于pRCCMV2真核表达载体中。体外转录突变EGFP的原核表达载体XYQ510pGEM和ptransribCMV2,以混合转录产物为模板进行RTPCR,电泳及测序证实产物中含有反式剪接修复的野生型EGFPmRNA,从而证实构建的反式剪接核酶具有体外反式剪接功能。将截短突变重组质粒XYQ5XYQ10pEGFPC2与核酶质粒ptransribCMV2共转染Hela细胞,用荧光显微镜观察转染结果,发现有少量共转染的Hela细胞发出绿光;RTPCR检测出野生型EGFPmRNA,证明构建的反式剪接核酶具有体内反式剪接的功能,但其反式剪接效率低。

Special designed group 1 i ntron ribozymes can specifically splice objective RNA,repair the mutant gene in RNA level. The specificity of ribozymc is determined by nuclcotides specific internal guide sequence （IGS） introduced to the enzyme. In this study, fragment sequence containing Tetrahymena therrnophilia intron Ⅰ of 26S rRNA gene was cloned and cis-splicing activity of this ribozyme was confirmed by in vitro transcription. For evaluating the trans-splicing activity of this ribozyme, a truncated mutant Green Fluorescence Protein（GFP） vector, XYQS/XYQ10- pEGFP-C2, was constructed. This vector deleted the 3′ end 564bp fragment of EGFP coding sequence, led to the lost the activity of emitting green fluorescence. Trans-splicing ribozyme plasmids ptrans-rib-CMV2 for remedy of the truncated mutant EGFP was constructed by PCR and molecular cloning techniques. This vector utilizing cloned 26S rRNA intron l as core enzyme; selecting T-G site at 194bp of EGFP coding sequence as splicing receptor, designed an 1GS which is inversely complement to the 188-193nt of EGFP mRNA; the 195-890bp fragment of EGFP coding sequence was ligated to the 3′-end of ribozyme core. The fragment containing these components was inserted to a eukayotic expression vector pRC-CMV2. Using linearized XYQ5/XYQ10-pEGFP-C2 and ptrans-rib-CMV2 as templates, truncated EGFP mRNA and the constructed ribozyme vector were transcribed and mixed to evaluate the trans-splicing activity. Analysis of in vitro transcription products mix by RT-PCR verified the existence of wild type EGFP mRNA molecule. Co-transfection of XYQ5/XYQlO- pEGFP-C2 with ptrans-rib-CMV2 to Hela cells proved this ribozyme restored green fluorescence within cell, but the efficiency was low.