The pURI family of expression vectors: A versatile set of ligation independent cloning plasmids for producing recombinant His-fusion proteins

A family of restriction enzyme- and ligation-independent cloning vectors has been developed for producing recombinant His-tagged fusion proteins in Escherichia coli. These are based on pURI2 and pURI3 expression vectors which have been previously used for the successful production of recombinant proteins at the milligram scale. The newly designed vectors combines two different promoters (lppp-5 and T7 RNA polymerase Ø10), two different endoprotease recognition sites for the His6-tag removal (enterokinase and tobacco etch virus), different antibiotic selectable markers (ampicillin and erythromycin resistance), and different placements of the His 6-tag (N- and C-terminus). A single gene can be cloned and further expressed in the eight pURI vectors by using six nucleotide primers, avoiding the restriction enzyme and ligation steps. A unique NotI site was introduced to facilitate the selection of the recombinant plasmid. As a case study, the new vectors have been used to clone the gene coding for the phenolic acid decarboxylase from Lactobacillus plantarum. Interestingly, the obtained results revealed markedly different production levels of the target protein, emphasizing the relevance of the cloning strategy on soluble protein production yield. Efficient purification and tag removal steps showed that the affinity tag and the protease cleavage sites functioned properly. The novel family of pURI vectors designed for parallel cloning is a useful and versatile tool for the production and purification of a protein of interest. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.This work was supported by grants RM2008-00002 (Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agraria y Alimentaría), AGL2008-01052, Consolider INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00063 FUN-C-FOOD (Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología), and S-0505/AGR/000153 and S2009/AGR-1469 (ALIBIRD) (Comunidad de Madrid). J.M.M. thanks the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación for a research grant (BFU2007-67404/BMC) and “Factoría de Cristalización” Consolider-Ingenio 2010 in support of his research. The technical assistance of M.V. Santamaría is greatly appreciated. J.A. Curiel is a recipient of a predoctoral fellowship from the MEC.Peer Reviewe

GSE4, a small dyskerin- and GSE24.2-related peptide, induces telomerase activity, cell proliferation and reduces DNA damage, oxidative stress and cell senescence in dyskerin mutant cells

Dyskeratosis congenita is an inherited disease caused by mutations in genes coding for telomeric components. It was previously reported that expression of a dyskerin-derived peptide, GSE24.2, increases telomerase activity, regulates gene expression and decreases DNA damage and oxidative stress in dyskeratosis congenita patient cells. The biological activity of short peptides derived from GSE24.2 was tested and one of them, GSE4, that probed to be active, was further characterized in this article. Expression of this eleven amino acids long peptide increased telomerase activity and reduced DNA damage, oxidative stress and cell senescence in dyskerin-mutated cells. GSE4 expression also activated c-myc and TERT promoters and increase of c-myc, TERT and TERC expression. The level of biological activity of GSE4 was similar to that obtained by GSE24.2 expression. Incorporation of a dyskerin nuclear localization signal to GSE24.2 did not change its activity on promoter regulation and DNA damage protection. However, incorporation of a signal that increases the rate of nucleolar localization impaired GSE24.2 activity. Incorporation of the dyskerin nuclear localization signal to GSE4 did not alter its biological activity. Mutation of the Aspartic Acid residue that is conserved in the pseudouridine synthase domain present in GSE4 did not impair its activity, except for the repression of c-myc promoter activity and the decrease of c-myc, TERT and TERC gene expression in dyskerin-mutated cells. These results indicated that GSE4 could be of great therapeutic interest for treatment of dyskeratosis congenita patients.This work was supported by grants PI1401495 (supported by FEDER funds) and ER15PR07ACC114/757 (Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Spain), 201320E075 (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) and IPT-2012-0674- 090000 (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Spain). CM-G is supported by the CIBER de Enfermedades Raras.Peer Reviewe

Identificación y caracterización de esterasas de Lactobacillus plantarum con interés en tecnología de alimentos

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la 7ª Reunión de la Red Tematica Bal: "Participación de las Bacterias Lácticas en la Salud Humana y en la Calidad Alimentaria" celebrado en Madrid del 4 al 5 de julio de 2013.Los ésteres son compuestos aromáticos que a pesar de encontrarse en niveles traza, son muy importantes en el perfil aromático de los alimentos. Pequeñas variaciones en los niveles de estos compuestos pueden tener importantes efectos en el aroma, y por lo tanto en la calidad, de los alimentos. Los ésteres de los alimentos se originan por acción de enzimas con actividad esterasa (EC 3.1.1.x) que pueden catalizar tanto reacciones de hidrólisis como de síntesis en función de las condiciones de reacción, por lo que tienen un gran interés en biotecnología. Entre estas enzimas se pueden distinguir carboxilesterasas, arilesterasas y lipasas. Las carboxilesterasas y las arilesterasas catalizan la hidrólisis de ésteres de cadena alifática corta o media solubles en agua, mientras que las lipasas presentan actividad frente a ésteres de cadena larga e insolubles en agua. Las feruloil esterasas, son un tipo de arilesterasas capaces de hidrolizar el enlace éster entre los ácidos cinámicos y los azúcares de las paredes celulares vegetales liberando compuestos fenólicos como el ácido cafeico, p-cumárico y ferúlico, los cuales presentan numerosas aplicaciones en la industria alimentaría. Lactobacillus plantarum es la especie de bacteria láctica modelo en fermentaciones de sustratos vegetales, en donde los ésteres de compuestos fenólicos, se encuentran en altas concentraciones. En el genoma de L. plantarum aparecen anotados genes que codifican “esterasas” o “lipasas” cuya funcionalidad no se ha comprobado bioquímicamente a pesar del interés biotecnológico que presentan. Por ello el objetivo de este trabajo es la identificación y caracterización de posibles esterasas en L. plantarum WCFS1. A pesar de que se han clonado los genes que codifican 14 posibles esterasas o lipasas, sólo se han podido producir y purificar correctamente las proteínas Lp_0796, Lp_0973, Lp_1002, Lp_2923, Lp_2987, Lp_3561 y Lp_3562. Utilizando ésteres derivados de p-nitrofenilo que varían en la longitud de su cadena alifática (desde acetato de p-nitrofenilo hasta palmitato de pnitrofenilo) se ha comprobado que todas las proteínas estudiadas hidrolizan mejor los ésteres de cadena corta, aunque Lp_1002, Lp_2926 y Lp_3562 también hidrolizan eficazmente palmitato de p-nitrofenilo.La proteína Lp_2987 es la única que no presenta actividad sobre ninguno de los derivados ensayados por lo que no se puede considerar como “esterasa”. La especificidad de substrato de las esterasas también se ha evaluado mediante una colección de ésteres que permite conocer su selectividad respecto a la carga del substrato, al tamaño de la cadena o al alcohol presente. Todas las proteínas purificadas, excepto Lp_2987, presentan actividad sobre acetato de fenilo, por lo que se pueden considerar como “aril esterasas”. La proteína Lp_0973 es la única que, además de acetato de fenilo, degrada triacetina y tributirina. De las esterasas estudiadas, la proteína Lp_0796 es la más interesante puesto que es una “feruloil esterasa” que hidroliza ésteres de ácidos hidroxicinámicos, siendo la primera vez que se describe una proteína con esta actividad en L. plantarum. Con objeto de mejorar la actividad de las esterasas para su posible uso industrial se han realizado experimentos de cristalización, inmovilización y evolución dirigida de alguna de ellas. Los resultados obtenidos indican que L. plantarum es una fuente adecuada de enzimas con actividad esterasa de gran influencia en el aroma de los alimentos.Peer reviewe

Glicosil hidrolasas de Lactiplantibacillus plantarum WCFS1

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la 15ª Reunión de la Red Española de Bacterias Lácticas: Bacterias Lácticas en Alimentación y Salud. Valencia, 26 y 27 de mayo de 2022.AGL2017-84614-C2-1-R y AGL2017-84614-C2-2-RPeer reviewe

Assessment of a New ROS1 Immunohistochemistry Clone (SP384) for the Identification of ROS1 Rearrangements in Patients with Non–Small Cell Lung Carcinoma: the ROSING Study

Introduction: The ROS1 gene rearrangement has become an important biomarker in NSCLC. The College of American Pathologists/International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer/Association for Molecular Pathology testing guidelines support the use of ROS1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) as a screening test, followed by confirmation with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or a molecular test in all positive results. We have evaluated a novel anti-ROS1 IHC antibody (SP384) in a large multicenter series to obtain real-world data. Methods: A total of 43 ROS1 FISH-positive and 193 ROS1 FISH-negative NSCLC samples were studied. All specimens were screened by using two antibodies (clone D4D6 from Cell Signaling Technology and clone SP384 from Ventana Medical Systems), and the different interpretation criteria were compared with break-apart FISH (Vysis). FISH-positive samples were also analyzed with next-generation sequencing (Oncomine Dx Target Test Panel, Thermo Fisher Scientific). Results: An H-score of 150 or higher or the presence of at least 70% of tumor cells with an intensity of staining of 2+ or higher by the SP384 clone was the optimal cutoff value (both with 93% sensitivity and 100% specificity). The D4D6 clone showed similar results, with an H-score of at least 100 (91% sensitivity and 100% specificity). ROS1 expression in normal lung was more frequent with use of the SP384 clone (p < 0.0001). The ezrin gene (EZR)-ROS1 variant was associated with membranous staining and an isolated green signal FISH pattern (p = 0.001 and p = 0.017, respectively). Conclusions: The new SP384 ROS1 IHC clone showed excellent sensitivity without compromising specificity, so it is another excellent analytical option for the proposed testing algorithm

Proteínas de fusión con un dominio lectina de tipo b-trébol, procedimiento de obtención y sus aplicaciones

Proteínas de fusión con un dominio lectina de tipo -trébol, procedimiento de obtención y sus aplicaciones. La presente invención describe un nuevo método general de expresión y purificación de proteínas de fusión conteniendo un dominio peptídico lectina beta-trébol como etiqueta de afinidad y solubilidad. Esta etiqueta permite producir diferentes proteínas de fusión solubles con elevados rendimientos y purificarlas mediante un protocolo de purificación eficaz, sencillo y de bajo coste. Dicho protocolo está basado en la capacidad del péptido para unir azúcares derivados de galactosa y consta de una sola etapa de cromatografía de afinidad que emplea matrices derivadas de agarosa y lactosa como eluyente.Peer reviewedConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España)B1 Patente sin examen previ

Personal perspectives

During the celebration of the International Year of Crystallography, IYCr2014, three important summits were organized in widely separated parts of the world: Karachi (Pakistan), Campinas (Brazil) and Bloemfontein (South Africa). These IUCr-UNESCO summit meetings were intended to bring together not only scientists in academia and industry from those countries but also science administrators and policy makers. The objective was to face the necessity for scientists within the crystallography realm to “think beyond political borders and other distinctions …”, which is a critical aspect to define and shape the future of crystallography. In this regard, Arbor wanted to enquire deeper into this future by asking a group of outstanding scientists, principal actors of key advances in different branches of crystallography, not only about their views on current crystallography but also on its promise to the future.Peer Reviewe

Presentation | Presentación : cien años de cristalografía moderna

Peer Reviewe

Structural Analysis of the Laetiporus sulphureous Hemolytic Pore-forming Lectin in Complex with Sugars

disponible en: http://www.xtal.iqfr.csic.es/publications/jbc2005.pdfLSL is a lectin produced by the parasitic mushroom Laetiporus sulphureus, which exhibits hemolytic and hemagglutinating activities. Here, we report the crystal structure of LSL refined to 2.6-Å resolution determined by the single isomorphous replacement method with the anomalous scatter (SIRAS) signal of a platinum derivative. The structure reveals that LSL is hexameric, which was also shown by analytical ultracentrifugation. The monomeric protein (35 kDa) consists of two distinct modules: an N-terminal lectin module and a pore-forming module. The lectin module has a -trefoil scaffold that bears structural similarities to those present in toxins known to interact with galactose-related carbohydrates such as the hemagglutinin component (HA1) of the progenitor toxin from Clostridium botulinum, abrin, and ricin. On the other hand, the C-terminal pore-forming module (composed of domains 2 and 3) exhibits three-dimensional structural resemblances with domains 3 and 4 of the -pore-forming toxin aerolysin from the Gram-negative bacterium Aeromonas hydrophila, and domains 2 and 3 from the -toxin from Clostridium perfringens. This finding reveals the existence of common structural elements within the aerolysin-like family of toxins that could be directly involved in membrane- pore formation. The crystal structures of the complexes of LSL with lactose and N-acetyllactosamine reveal two dissacharide-binding sites per subunit and permits the identification of critical residues involved in sugar binding.This work was supported by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia Grant BFU2004-01554/BMC (to J. M. M., M. M.-R., and J. A. H.) and National Institutes of Health Research Grant GM29477 (to I. J. G.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges.Peer reviewe

The pURI family of expression vectors: A versatile set of ligation independent cloning plasmids for producing recombinant His-fusion proteins

A family of restriction enzyme- and ligation-independent cloning vectors has been developed for producing recombinant His-tagged fusion proteins in Escherichia coli. These are based on pURI2 and pURI3 expression vectors which have been previously used for the successful production of recombinant proteins at the milligram scale. The newly designed vectors combines two different promoters (lppp-5 and T7 RNA polymerase Ø10), two different endoprotease recognition sites for the His6-tag removal (enterokinase and tobacco etch virus), different antibiotic selectable markers (ampicillin and erythromycin resistance), and different placements of the His 6-tag (N- and C-terminus). A single gene can be cloned and further expressed in the eight pURI vectors by using six nucleotide primers, avoiding the restriction enzyme and ligation steps. A unique NotI site was introduced to facilitate the selection of the recombinant plasmid. As a case study, the new vectors have been used to clone the gene coding for the phenolic acid decarboxylase from Lactobacillus plantarum. Interestingly, the obtained results revealed markedly different production levels of the target protein, emphasizing the relevance of the cloning strategy on soluble protein production yield. Efficient purification and tag removal steps showed that the affinity tag and the protease cleavage sites functioned properly. The novel family of pURI vectors designed for parallel cloning is a useful and versatile tool for the production and purification of a protein of interest. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.This work was supported by grants RM2008-00002 (Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agraria y Alimentaría), AGL2008-01052, Consolider INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00063 FUN-C-FOOD (Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología), and S-0505/AGR/000153 and S2009/AGR-1469 (ALIBIRD) (Comunidad de Madrid). J.M.M. thanks the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación for a research grant (BFU2007-67404/BMC) and “Factoría de Cristalización” Consolider-Ingenio 2010 in support of his research. The technical assistance of M.V. Santamaría is greatly appreciated. J.A. Curiel is a recipient of a predoctoral fellowship from the MEC.Peer Reviewe