The spindles of Anomala cuprea entomopoxvirus (AncuEPV), which are composed of glycoprotein fusolin, are known to enhance the peroral infectivity of AncuEPV itself and of nucleopolyhedroviruses. This has been demonstrated to involve the disruption of intestinal peritrophic membrane (PM), composed of chitin matrix, glycosaminoglycans, and proteins. To identify essential and nonessential regions ...

The Clostridium paraputrificum chiB gene, encoding chitinase B (ChiB), consists of an open reading frame of 2,493 nucleotides and encodes 831 amino acids with a deduced molecular weight of 90,020. The deduced ChiB is a modular enzyme composed of a family 18 catalytic domain responsible for chitinase activity, two reiterated domains of unknown function, and a chitin-binding domain (CBD). The rei...

We identified four new family 19 chitinases in Oi:yza sativa L. cv. Nipponbare: one class I (OsChiald), two clftss II (OsChia2a nd OsChia2b), and Qne class IV (OsChia4a). OsChia2a resembled (about 60% identity) the catalytic domains of class I chitinases, but OsChia2b was almost identical (95% identity) to tbat of the class IV enzyme. OsChialc, OsChialcACBD (a deJetion of OsChialc lacking a chi...

The Candida albicans BNI4 gene was identified by homology to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae orthologue and encodes a predicted 1655 amino acid protein. In S. cerevisiae most cell-wall chitin is associated with primary septum formation and Bni4p is involved in tethering the Chs3p chitin synthase enzyme to the mother-bud neck by forming a bridge between a regulatory protein Chs4p and the septin Cdc...

The Cel5 cellulase (formerly known as endoglucanase Z) from Erwinia chrysanthemi is a multidomain enzyme consisting of a catalytic domain, a linker region, and a cellulose binding domain (CBD). A three-dimensional structure of the CBD(Cel5) has previously been obtained by nuclear magnetic resonance. In order to define the role of individual residues in cellulose binding, site-directed mutagenes...

Peritrophic membrane proteins are important components of the insect peritrophic membrane. A novel cDNA gene encoding a chitin-binding protein, named secbp66, was identified by immunization screening of the cDNA library of Spodoptera exigua. The full length of secbp66 is 1806 bp, which encodes 602 amino acids. The predicted weight of the protein is 64.2 kDa. Bioinformatic analysis showed that a...

Chitinases hydrolyze chitin, an insoluble linear polymer of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (NAG)(n), into nutrient sources. Bacillus cereus NCTU2 chitinase (ChiNCTU2) predominantly produces chitobioses and belongs to glycoside hydrolase family 18. The crystal structure of wild-type ChiNCTU2 comprises only a catalytic domain, unlike other chitinases that are equipped with additional chitin binding and i...

One of the major proteins secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a 43-kDa protein, which is cleaved by elastase into smaller fragments, including a 30-kDa and a 23-kDa fragment. The N-terminal 23-kDa fragment was previously suggested as corresponding to a staphylolytic protease and was designated LasD (S. Park and D. R. Galloway, Mol. Microbiol. 16:263-270, 1995). However, the sequence of the ge...

Abbreviations: Abl, Abelson protein tyrosine kinase; CBD, chitin-binding domain; EPL, expressed protein ligation; GPCR, G-protein-coupled receptor; IPL, intein-mediated protein ligation; MBP, maltosebinding protein; NCL, native chemical ligation; NMR, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance; Npu, Nostoc punctiforme; PDB, Protein Data Bank; PTB, polypyrimidine tract binding protein; SH2 and SH3, src homology...