Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C-${\gamma}1$ (PLC-${\gamma}1$) is a pivotal mediator in the signal transduction cascades induced by many growth factors. Using a yeast two-hybrid system, heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp90) was identified as a PLC-${\gamma}1$-binding protein. A co-immunoprecipitation experiment, using anti-PLC-${\gamma}1$ antibody, demonstrated an in vivo interaction between Hsp90 and PLC-${\gamma}1$ in the NIH-3T3 cells. The interaction in NIH-3T3 was unaffected by the PDGF treatment, inducing phosphorylation and activation of PLC-${\gamma}1$. Direct interaction between Hsp90 and PLC-${\gamma}1$ was confirmed by in vitro binding experiments using purified Hsp90 and PLC-${\gamma}1$. Furthermore, Hsp90 increased the $PIP_2$-hydrolyzing activity of PLC-${\gamma}1$ up to 2-fold at $0.1{\mu}M$ in vitro. Taken together, we show for the first time, the interaction of PLC-${\gamma}1$ with Hsp90, both in vivo and in vitro. We suggest that Hsp90 may play a role in PLC-${\gamma}1$-mediated signal transduction.

Phosphorylation of the eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF-2) blocks the elongation step of translation and stops overall protein synthesis. Although the overall rate of protein synthesis in mitosis reduces to 20% of that in S phase, it is unclear how the protein translation procedure is regulated during the cell cycle, especially in the stage of peptide elongation. To delineate the regulation of the elongation step through eEF-2 function, the changes in phosphorylation of eEF-2, and in activity of corresponding $Ca^{2+}$/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein kinase III (CaMK-III) during the cell cycle of NIH 3T3 cells, were determined. The in vivo level of phosphorylated eEF-2 showed an 80% and 40% increase in the cells arrested at G1 and M, respectively. The activity of CaMK-III also changed in a similar pattern, more than a 2-fold increase when arrested at G1 and M. The activity change of the kinase during one turn of the cell cycle also demonstrated the activation at G1 and M phases. The activity change of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) was reciprocal to that of CaMK-III. These results indicated: (1) the activity of CaMK-III was cell cycle-dependent and (2) the level of eEF-2 phosphorylation followed the kinase activity change. Therefore, the elongation step of protein synthesis might be cell cycle dependently regulated.

Three kinds of serine protease inhibitors, members of the Bowman-Birk trypsin inhibitor, were purified from Dolichos lablab seeds and named Dolichos protease inhibitor 1, 2 and 3 (DI-1, DI-2 and DI-3), respectively. Each inhibitor showed a single band with gel mobility at around 15.9, 12.1 and 14.6 kDa on 20% SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions. To characterize inhibitory specificity, the inhibition constant (Ki) for these inhibitors was measured against several known serine proteases. All three Dolichos protease inhibitors (DI-1, DI-2 and DI-3) inhibited the activity of trypsin and plasmin, but had no effect on thrombin and kallikrein (either for human plasma kallikrein or for porcine pancreas kallikrein). DI-1 inhibited chymotrypsin most effectively (Ki = $3.6{\times}10^{-9}\;M$), while DI-2 displayed inhibitory activity for porcine pancreatic elastase (Ki = $6.2{\times}10^{-8}\;M$). Pre-treatment of the 33 mg/kg of DI-mixture (active fractions from $C_{18}$ open column chromatography that included DI-1, DI-2 and DI-3) inhibited the induction of pseudomonal elastase-induced septic hypotension and prevented an increase in bradykinin generation in pseudomonal elastase-treated guinea pig plasma. Also, the increase of kallikrein activity, by injection of pseudomonal elastase, was inhibited by the pretreatment of the DI-mixture in a guinea pig. Since the DI-mixture had no inhibitory effect on kallikrein activity when Z-Phe-Arg-MCA was used as a substrate in vitro, its inhibitory activity in the pseudomonal elastase-induced septic hypotension model might not be due to a direct inhibition of plasma kallikrein in the activation cascade of the Hageman factor and prekallikrein system. These results suggest that the Dolichos DI-mixture might be used as an inhibitor in pathogenic bacterial protease-induced septic shock.

M2PI is an active single chain mini-proinsulin with a 9-residue linker containing the turn-forming sequence 'YPGDV' between the B- and A-chains, but which retains about 50% of native insulin receptor binding activity. The refolding efficiency of M2PI is higher than proinsulin by 20-40% at alkaline pH, and native insulin is generated by the enzymatic conversion of M2PI. The solution structure of M2PI was determined by NMR spectroscopy. The global structure of M2PI is similar to that of native insulin, but the flexible linker between the B- and A-chains perturbed the N-terminal A-chain and C-terminal B-chain. The helix in the N-terminal A-chain is partly perturbed and the ${\beta}$-turn in the B-chain is disrupted in M2PI. However, the linker between the two chains was completely disordered indicating that the designed turn was not formed under the experimental conditions (20% acetic acid). Considering the fact that an insulin analogue, directly cross-linked between the C-terminus of the B-chain and the N-terminus of the A-chain, has negligible binding activity, a flexible linker between the two chains is sufficient to keep binding activity of M2PI, but the perturbed secondary structures are detrimental to receptor binding.

The hepadnaviruses replicate their nucleic acid through a reverse transcription step. The MBP-fused HBV polymerase was expressed in E. coli and purified by using amylase affinity column chromatography. The purified protein represented DNA-dependent DNA polymerase activity. In this report, the MBP-HBV polymerase was shown to lack 3'$\rightarrow$5' exonuclease activity, like other retroviral RTs. The ratio of the insertion efficiency for the wrong versus right vase pairs indicates the misinsertion frequency (f). The nucleotide insertion fidelity (1/f), observed with the MBP-HBV polymerase and HIV-1 RT, was between 60 and 54,000, and between 50 and 73,000, respectively, showing that they are in close range. A relatively efficient nucleotide incorporation by the MBP-HBV polymerase was observed with a specificity of three groups: (1) A : T, T : A>C : G, G : C (matched pairs), (2) A : C, C : A>G: T, T : G (purine-pyrimidine and pyrimidine-purine mispairs), and (3) C : C, A : A, G : G, T : T>T : C, C : T>A : G, G : A (purine-purine or pyrimidine-pyrimidine mispairs), and their order is (1)>(2)>(3). The data from the nucleotide insertion fidelity by the MBP-HBV polymerase suggest that the HBV polymerase may be as error-prone as HIV-1 RT.

To elucidate the effect of oxygen radicals on the molecular properties of proteins, the secondary and tertiary structure and molecular weight size of BSA and ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin were examined after irradiation of proteins at various doses. Gamma-irradiation of protein solutions caused the disruption of the ordered structure of protein molecules as well as degradation, cross-linking, and aggregation of the polypeptide chains. As a model system, BSA and ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin were used as a typical ${\alpha}$-helical and a ${\beta}$-sheet structure protein, respectively. A circular dichroism study showed that the increase of radiation decreased the ordered structure of proteins with a concurrent increase of aperiodic structure content. Fluorescence spectroscopy indicated that irradiation quenched the emission intensity excited at 280 nm. SDS-PAGE and a gel permeation chromatography study indicated that radiation caused initial fragmentation of proteins resulting in a subsequent aggregation due to cross-linking of protein molecules.

In eukaryotes, chromosomes undergo a series of complex and coordinated movements during cell division. The kinesin motor proteins, such as the chicken Chromokinesin, are known to bind DNA and transport chromosomes on spindle microtubles. We previously cloned a family of retrograde C-terminus kinesins in Caenorhabditis elegans that mediate chromosomal movement during embryonic development. Here we report the cloning of a C. elegans klp-12 cDNA, encoding an ortholog of chicken Chromokinesin and mouse KIF4. The KLP-12 protein contains 1609 amino acid and harbors two leucine zipper motifs. The insitu RNA hybridization in embryonic stages shows that the klp-12 gene is expressed during the entire embryonic development. The RNA interference assay reveals that, similar to the role of Chromokinesin, klp-12 functions in chromosome segregation. These results support the notion that during mitosis both types, the anterograde N-terminus kinesins such as KLP-12 and the retrograde C-terminus kinesins, such as KLP-3, KLP-15, KLP-16, and KLP-17, may coordinate chromosome assembly at the metaphase plate and chromosomal segregation towards the spindle poles in C. elegans.

The glycation process plays an important role in accelerated atherosclerosis in diabetes, and the uptake of atherogenic lipoproteins by macrophage in the intima of the vessel wall leads to foam cell formation, an early sign of atherosclerosis. Besides the lipolytic action on the plasma triglyceride component, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) has been reported to enhance the cholesterol uptake by arterial wall cells. In this study, some properties of LPL-mediated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) uptake and the effect of LDL glycation were investigated in RAW 264.7 cell, a murine macrophage cell line. In the presence of LPL, $^{125}I$-LDL binding to RAW 264.7 cells was increased in a dose-dependent manner. At concentrations greater than $20\;{\mu}g/ml$ of LPL, LPL-mediated LDL binding was increased about 17-fold, achieving saturation. Without LPL, both very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were ineffective in blocking the binding of $^{125}I$-LDL to Cells. However, LPL-enhanced LDL binding was inhibited about 50% by the presence of VLDL, while no significant effect was observed with HDL. Heat inactivation of LPL caused a 30% decrease of LDL binding. In the presence of LPL, the cells took up 40% of cell-bound native LDL. No significant difference was observed in cell binding between native and glycated LDL. However, the uptake of glycated LDL was significantly greater than that of native LDL, reaching to 70% of the total cell bound glycated LDL. These results indicate that LPL can cause the significant enhancement of LDL uptake by RAW 264.7 cells and the enhanced uptake of glycated LDL in the presence of LPL might play an important role in the accelerated atherogenesis in diabetic patients.

The saccharomyces cerevisiae Rad27, a structure-specific endonuclease for the okazaski fragment maturation has been known to interact genetically and biochemically with Dna2, an essential enzyme for DNA replication. In an attempt to define the significance of the interaction between the two enzymes, we expressed and purified both Dna2 and Rad27 proteins. In this report, Rad27 could not form a complex with Dna2 in the three different analyses. The analyses included glycerol gradient sedimentation, protein-column chromatography, and coinfection of baculoviruses followed by affinity purification. This is in striking contrast to the previous results that used crude extracts. These results suggest that the interaction between the two proteins is not sufficiently stable or indirect, and thus requires an additional protein(s) in order for Rad27 and Dna2 to form a stable physical complex. This result is consistent with our genetic findings that Schizosaccharomyces pombe Dna2 is capable of interacting with several proteins that include two subunits of polymerase $\delta$, DNA ligase I, as well as Fen-1. In addition, we found that the N-terminal modification of Rad27 abolished its enzymatic activity. Thus, as suspected, we found that on the basis of the structure determination, N-terminal methionine indeed plays an important role in the nucleolytic cleavage reaction.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is well established as an indispensable tool of molecular biology; and yet a limitation for cloning applications continues to be that products often require subsequent restriction to be that products often require subsequent restriction digests, blunt-end ligation, or the use of special linear vectors. Here a rapid, PCR-based system is described for the simple, restriction enzyme-free generation of synthetic, 'restriction-like' DNA fragments with staggered ends. Any 3'- or 5'-protruding terminus, but also non-palindromic overhangs with an unrestricted single strand length are specifically created. With longer overhangs, "Restriction-PCR" does not even require a ligation step prior to transformation. Thereby the technique presents a powerful tool e.g. for a successive, authentic reconstitution of sub-fragments of long genes with no need to manipulate the sequence or to introduce restriction sites. Since restriction enzyme-free and thereby devoid the limitations of partial DNA digests, "Restriction-PCR" allows a straight one-step generation and cloning of difficult DNA fragments that internally carry additional sites for specific sequence insertions or deletions can be precisely engineered into genes of interest. With these properties "Restriction-PCR" has the potential to add significant speed and versatility to a wide variety of DNA cloning applications.

Thioredoxin is a multifunctional protein that is ubiquitous in microorganisms, animals and plants. Previously, the expression of the Escherichia coli thioredoxin gene (trxA) was found to be negatively regulated by cAMP. In the present study, the effect of temperature on the expression of the E. coli trxA gene was investigated. In order to examine the temperature effect, the fusion plasmid pCL70 that harbors the E. coli trxA P1P2 promoter was used. The other two fusion plasmids, pJH3 and pMH521 that were constructed in different vectors which harbor the E. coli trxA P2 promoter, were also used. When the E. coli strain MC1061/pCL70 was grown in a rich medium at $25^{\circ}C$, $34^{\circ}C$ and $42^{\circ}C$, the cells grown at $42^{\circ}C$ gave the highest $\beta$-galactosidase activity. The E. coli MC1061/pJH3 and MC1061/pMG521 cells showed increased $\beta$-galactosidase activity after the shift of the culture temperature to $42^{\circ}C$. The wild-type trxA gene of the E. coli MC1061 cells produced much higher thioredoxin activity at the higher temperature. These results support the conclusion that the E. coli trxA gene is regulated in a temperature-dependent manner. Especially the expression from its P2 promoter appeared to be sensitive to temperature.

The lipoxygenase was purified 35 fold to homogeneity from the Korean red potato by an ammonium sulfate precipitation and DEAE-cellulose column chromatography. The simple purification method is useful for the preparation of pure lipoxygenase. The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be 38,000 by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoreses and Sepharose 6B column chromatography. The purified enzyme with 2 M $(NH_4)_2SO_4$ in a potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.0, was very stable for 5 months at $-20^{\circ}C$. Because the purified lipoxygenase is very stable, it could be useful for the screening of a lipoxygenase inhibitor. The optimal pH and temperature for lipoxygenase purified from the red potato were found to be pH 9.0. and $30^{\circ}C$, respectively. The Km and Vmax values for linoleic acid of the lipoxygenase purified from the red potato were $48\;{\mu}M$ and $0.03\;{\mu}M$ per minute per milligram of protein, respectively. The enzyme was insensitive to the metal chelating agents tested (2 mM KCN, 1 and 10mM EDTA, and 1 mM $NaN_3$), but was inhibited by several divalent cations, such as $Cu^{++}$, $Co^{++}$ and $Ni^{++}$. The essential amino acids that were involved in the catalytic mechanism of the 5-lipoxygenase from the Korean red potato were determined by chemical modification studies. The catalytic activity of lipoxygenase from the red potato was seriously reduced after treatment with a diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC) modifying histidine residue and Woodward's reagent (WRK) modifying aspartic/glutamic acid. The inactivation reaction of DEPC (WRK) processed in the form of pseudo-first-order kinetics. The double-logarithmic plot of the observed pseudo-first-order rate constant against the modifier concentration yielded a reaction order 2, indicating that two histidine residues (carboxylic acids) were essential for the lipoxygenase activity from the red potato. The linoleic acid protected the enzyme against inactivation by DEPC(WRK), revealing that histidine and carboxylic amino acids residues were present at the substrate binding site of the enzyme molecules.

The glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities of S-type and L-type thioltransferases (TTases), which are purified from the seeds and leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana, respectively, were identified and compared. The S-type and L-type TTases showed $K_m$ values of 9.72 mM and 3.18mM on 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB), respectively, indicating the L-type TTase has higher affinity for CDNB. The GST activity of the L-type TTase was rapidly inactivated after being heated at $70^{\circ}C$ or higher. The GST activity of the S-type TTase remains active in a range of $30-90^{\circ}C$. $Hg^{2+}$ inhibited the GST activity of the S-type TTase, whereas $Ca^{2+}$ and $Cd^{2+}$ inhibited the GST activity of the L-type TTase. Our results suggest that the GST activities of two TTases of Arabidopsis thaliana may have different catalytic mechanisms. The importance of the co-existence of TTAse and GST activities in one protein remains to be elucidated.

Prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$) plays an important role in the regulation of various gastric functions, and the growth-inhibitory activities on tumor cells are studied in vitro and in vivo. Although the mechanisms have attracted many researchers in the past decade, the molecular mechanisms of cell cycle arrest, or induction of apoptosis by $PGE_2$, is unclear. We investigated the effects of $PGE_2$ on the growth of the human gastric carcinoma cell line SNU1 and genes that are regulated by $PGE_2$ and isolated them using differential display RT-PCR (DD RT-PCR). FACS analysis suggested that SNU1 cells were arrested at the G1 phase by $PGE_2$ treatment. This growth inhibitory effect was in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Treatment of SNU1 cells with $10\;{\mu}g/ml$ $PGE_2$, followed by DD RT-PCR analysis, revealed differently expressed bands patterns from the control. Among the differently expressed clones, we found an unidentified cDNA clone (HGP-27) overexpressed in $PGE_2$-treated cells. The full-length cDNA of HGP-27 was isolated using RACE, which consisted of a 30-nt 5'-noncoding region, a 891-nt ORF encoding the 296 amino acid protein, and a 738-nt 3'-noncoding region including a poly(a) signal. This gene was localized on the short arm of chromosome number 11. Using the Motif Finder program, a myb-DNA binding repeat signature was detected on the ORF region. The COOH-terminal half was shown to have similarity with the $NH_3$-terminal domain of thioredoxin (Trx). This relation between HGP-27 and Trx implied a potential role for HGP-27 in modulating the DNA binding function of a transcription factor, myb.

Recombinant protein G has been utilized in the purification of antibodies from various mammalian species based on the interaction of antibodies with protein G. The interaction between immunoglobulin and protein G may not be restricted to the Fc protion of antibodies, as many different $F(ab)_2$ or Fab fragments can also bind to protein G. I found both FAb $F(ab)_2$ of 145-2C11, a hamster anti-mouse $CD3{\varepsilon}$ antibody, bound to the protein G-sepharose. Interestingly, Fab and $F(ab)_2$ of 145-2C11 did not bind to the protein A-sepharose. The binding of Fab and $F(ab)_2$ of 145-2C11 to protein G provided a useful method to remove proteases, chopped fragments of the Fc region, and other contaminating proteins. The remaining intact antibody in the protease reaction mixture can be removed by using a protein A-sepharose, because the Fab and $F(ab)_2$ portions of 145-2C11 did not bind to protein A-sepharose. The specific binding of Fab and $F(ab)_2$ portions of 145-sC11 to a protein G-sepharose (though not to a protein A-sepharose) and binding of intact 145-2C11 to both protein A- and G-sepharose will be useful in developing an effective purification protocol for Fab and $F(ab)_2$ portions of 145-2C11.