BACKGROUND Plants may represent excellent alternatives to classical heterologous protein expression systems, especially for the production of biopharmaceuticals and vaccine components. Modern vaccines are becoming increasingly complex, with the incorporation of multiple antigens. Approaches towards developing an HIV vaccine appear to confirm this, with a combination of candidate antigens. Among...

The enzyme 3-deoxy-manno-octulosonate cytidylyltransferase (CMP-KDO synthetase; CKS) catalyzes the activation of 3-deoxy-manno-octulosonate (KDO) by forming CMP-KDO. It is essential for the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharides in Gram-negative bacteria and is a potential target for the discovery of antibacterial agents. L-CKS from Haemophilus influenzae was overexpressed with a C-terminal hexahi...

Two-component systems are major regulatory systems for bacterial adaptation to environmental changes. During the infectious cycle of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, adaptation to an intracellular environment is critical for multiplication and survival of the micro-organism within the host. The M. tuberculosis prrA gene, encoding the regulator of the two-component system PrrA-PrrB, has been shown to...

Inhibition of renin was induced in conscious marmosets with CGP 29 287, Z-Arg-Arg-Pro-Phe-His-Sta-Ile-His-Lys (Boc)-OMe, a renin inhibitor with a prolonged duration of action. In vitro, CGP 29 287 is a potent inhibitor of primate plasma renin (inhibitory concentration, 50%: human = 1 X 10(-9) M; marmoset = 5 X 10(-9) M) and less potent against dog (2 X 10(-7) M) or rat (3 X 10(-5) M) plasma ren...

In budding yeast and higher eukaryotic genomes, there are, respectively, 50 and up to 400 or more distinct genes that encode for ubiquitin-ligases, and approximately 15-90 genes that encode for ubiquitin isopeptidases (TM and RJD, Semple et al., 2003). This puts ubiquitylation on par with phosphorylation as the most common reversible posttranslational modifications in eukaryotic cells. A key ch...

The Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite is the causative agent of malaria tropica. Merozoites, one of the extracellular developmental stages of this parasite, expose at their surface the merozoite surface protein-1 complex (MSP-1), which results from the proteolytic processing of a 190-200 kDa precursor. MSP-1 is highly immunogenic in humans and numerous studies suggest that this protein is ...

ConBr, a D-glucose/D-mannose-specific lectin from Canavalia brasiliensis seeds, was produced in Escherichia coli from a (c)DNA clone subcloned to pET15b expression vector. The recombinant lectin (rConBr) was purified by one-step immobilized metal-affinity chromatography using an amino-terminal hexahistidine tag. By SDS-PAGE and Western blot, rConBr was highly pure with an apparent molecular mas...

BACKGROUND Heterologous protein expression in microorganisms may contribute to identify and demonstrate antifungal activity of novel proteins. The Solanum nigrum osmotin-like protein (SnOLP) gene encodes a member of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins, from the PR-5 sub-group, the last comprising several proteins with different functions, including antifungal activity. Based on deduced amino aci...

A two-step templated, ribosomal biosynthesis/printing method for the fabrication of protein microarrays for surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI) measurements is demonstrated. In the first step, a sixteen component microarray of proteins is created in microwells by cell free on chip protein synthesis; each microwell contains both an in vitro transcription and translation (IVTT) solution and ...

Low pH triggers the translocation domain of diphtheria toxin (T-domain), which contains 10 α helices, to insert into a planar lipid bilayer membrane, form a transmembrane channel, and translocate the attached catalytic domain across the membrane. Three T-domain helices, corresponding to TH5, TH8, and TH9 in the aqueous crystal structure, form transmembrane segments in the open-channel state; th...