The vacuolar chitinases of class I possess an N-terminal cysteinerich domain homologous to hevein and chitin-binding lectins such as wheat germ agglutinin and Urfica dioica lectin. To investigate the significance of this domain for the biochemical and functional characteristics of chitinase, chimeric genes encoding the basic chitinase A of tobacco (Nicotiana fabacum) with and without this domai...

A cDNA encoding a putative lectin expressed in tomato leaves was identified and analysed. The lectin consists of two homologous chitin-binding modules interconnected by a short proline-rich domain containing a single Ser[Pro]( n ) repetitive motif. Each module comprises two in-tandem-arrayed hevein domains separated by a tetrapeptide linker. Besides the chitin-binding modules and proline-rich d...

The critical role of chitin synthases in oomycete hyphal tip growth has been established. A microtubule interacting and trafficking (MIT) domain was discovered in the chitin synthases of the oomycete model organism, Saprolegnia monoica. MIT domains have been identified in diverse proteins and may play a role in intracellular trafficking. The structure of the Saprolegnia monoica chitin synthase ...

Chitin is a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine that is abundant and widely found in the biological world. It is an important constituent of the cuticular exoskeleton that plays a key role in the insect life cycle. To date, the study of chitin deposition during cuticle formation has been limited by the lack of a method to detect it in living organisms. To overcome this limitation, we have developed ...

By a limited proteolysis with thermolysin, rye seed chitinase-a (RSC-a) was separated into a N-terminal c}'steine-rich chitin-binding (CB-) domain (48 residues) and a cata])'tic (Cat-) domain (254 residues). The h)'drolytic activity of the isolated Cat-domain toward sotuble glycolchitin, was similar to that of RSC-a, but that toward insolub]e cot]oidal chitin was 28'M, of that of RSC-a. Five di...

Brassica juncea BjCHI1 is a plant chitinase with two chitin-binding domains. Its expression, induced in response to wounding, methyl jasmonate treatment, Aspergillus niger infection, and caterpillar Pieris rapae feeding, suggests that it plays a role in defence. In this study, to investigate the potential of using BjCHI1 in agriculture, Pichia-expressed BjCHI1 and its deletion derivatives that ...

The cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus) is the main pest that attacks (Vigna unguiculata) seeds during storage, causing nutritional and economic losses in crop. Thus, studies aiming to identify resistant cultivars have been developed. Chitin-binding proteins (CBP), such vicilins chitinases, detected related with toxicity insects. In this work, we investigated presence of chitin-binding par...

A new myosin motor-like chitin synthase gene, chsVb, has been identified in the vascular wilt fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. Phylogenetic analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence of the chsVb chitin synthase 2 domain (CS2) revealed that ChsVb belongs to class VII chitin synthases. The ChsVb myosin motor-like domain (MMD) is shorter than the MMD of class V chitin synthases and ...

We isolated SN-HLPf (Sambucus nigra hevein-like fruit protein), a hevein-like chitin-binding protein, from mature elderberry fruits. Cloning of the corresponding gene demonstrated that SN-HLPf is synthesized as a chimeric precursor consisting of an N-terminal chitin-binding domain corresponding to the mature elderberry protein and an unrelated C-terminal domain. Sequence comparisons indicated t...

Chitinases are slow-reacting but important enzymes as they are anticipated to have diverse applications. The role of a chitin-binding domain (ChBD) in enhancing the quality of binding is essential information for purposeful engineering of chitinases. The idea of making hybrid chitinases by fusing a known ChBD to a chitinase, which naturally lacks ChBD is of interest especially for bio-controlli...