Recombinant scorpion insectotoxin AaIT kills specifically insect cells but not human cells

The nucleotide sequence deduced from the amino acid sequence of the scorpion insectotoxin AaIT was chemically synthesized and was expressed in Escherichia coli. The authenticity of this in vitro expressed peptide was confirmed by N-terminal peptide sequencing. Two groups of bioassays, artificial diet incorporation assay and contact insecticidal effect assay, were carried out separately to verify the toxicity of this recombinant toxin. At the end of a 24 h experimental period, more than 60% of the testing diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) larvae were killed in both groups with LC50 value of 18.4 microM and 0.70 microM respectively. Cytotoxicity assay using cultured Sf9 insect cells and MCF-7 human cells demonstrated that the toxin AaIT had specific toxicity against insect cells but not human cells. Only 0.13 microM recombinant toxin was needed to kill 50% of cultured insect cells while as much as 1.3 microM toxin had absolutely no effect on human cells. Insect cells produced obvious intrusions from their plasma membrane before broken up. We infer that toxin AaIT bind to a putative sodium channel in these insect cells and open the channel persistently, which would result in Na+ influx and finally cause destruction of insect cells.

Rice bicoid-related cDNA sequence and its expression during early embryogenesis

Bicoid is one of the important Drosophila maternal genes involved in the control of embryo polarity and larvae segmentation. To clone and characterize the rice bicoid-related genes, one cDNA clone, Rb24 (EMBL accession number: AJ2771380), was isolated by screening of rice unmature seed cDNA library. Sequence analysis indicates that Rb24 contains a putative amino acid sequence, which is homologous to unique 8 amino acids sequence within Drosophila bicoid homeodomain (50% identity, 75% similarity) and involves a lys-9 in putative helix 3. Northern blot analysis of rice RNA has shown that this sequence is expressed in a tissue-specific manner. The transcript was detected strongly in young panicles, but less in young leaves and roots. This results are further confirmed with paraffin section in situ hybridization. The signal is intensive in rice globular embryo and located at the apical tip of the embryo, then, along with the development of embryo, the signal is getting reduced and transfers into both sides of embryo. The existence of bicoid-related sequence in rice embryo and the similarity of polar distribution of bicoid and Rb24 mRNA in early embryo development may implicates a conserved maternal regulation mechanism of body axis presents in Drosophila and in rice.

The expression and antigenicity identification of recombinant rat TGF-β1 in bacteria

In order to study structure-function details of TGF-beta1, the recombinant mature form of rat TGF-beta1 was expressed in bacteria. Synthesis of the 112 amino-acid carboxyl-terminal part of TGF-beta1 (amino acid 279-390) was controlled by an inducible gene expression system based on bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase. This system allowed an active and selective synthesis of recombinant TGF-beta1. The molecular weight of expressed TGF-alpha1 monomer determined on SDS-polyacrylamide gel under reducing conditions was about 13 kD. Serial detergent washes combined with a single gel-filtration purification step were sufficient to purify the expression product to homogeneity. Amino-terminal sequencing revealed that the N-terminal of the recombinant protein was identical to the published data. In Western blot analysis the recombinant polypeptide showed excellent antigenicity against polyclonal TGF-beta1 antibody. The mature recombinant rat TGF-beta1 expressed in this study provides a useful tool for future detailed structural and functional studies.