ICE(白细胞介素-1β转换酶)是caspase家族(半胱氨酸天门冬氨酸蛋白酶cys-teinylaspartate specific proteinase)中最早发现的成员,在多细胞生物细胞凋亡的过程中起着重要作用。为了深入了解模式昆虫家蚕ICE在凋亡通路中的作用,采用紫外线刺激家蚕细胞,PCR克隆获得2个新的ice基因不同剪切体,分别命名为ice-2和ice-5(GenBank登录号:DQ360829和DQ360830),并将这2个剪切体分别克隆进原核表达载体pET28a中,在大肠杆菌中诱导表达,对表达产物进行了检测,结果显示ICE-2和ICE-5蛋白表达过程中能发生自我剪切。
Deoxyhypusine snyhtase （DHS） and deoxyhypusine hydroxylase （DOHH） are the two enzymes that catalyze the synthesis of hypusine within eukaryotic initiation factor 5A （eIF5A）. Synthesis of hypusine is essential for the function of eIF5A in eukaryotic cell proliferation and survival. Here we described the cloning and expression of two full-length cDNAs, encoding respectively DHS-like protein and DOHH-like protein from Bombyx mori by using the methods of bioinformatics, RACE, and RT-PCR technology, named as BmDHS and BmDOHH. Sequencing results indicate that they are 1 311 and 1 874 bp in length including complete open reading frame （ORF） 1 116 and 915 bp, which encode 371 amino acids （molecular weight is about 41.11 kD and isoelectric point is 5.84） and 304 amino acids （molecular weight is about 34.30 kD and isoelectric point is 4.86）, respectively. BmDHS contains only 1 exon, and BmDOHH contains 4 exons and 3 introns. The deduced amino acid sequence of BmDHS contains a deoxyhypusine synthase domain from 47 to 361 amino acid residues, and the deduced amino acid sequence of BmDOHH contains 6 E-Z type HEAT repeat domains （23-52, 54-83, 87-116, 177-206, 208-237, and 241- 270）. Compared to DHS and DOHH amino acid sequences from other species, such as Homo sapiens and Drosophila melanogaster, both silkworm DHS protein and DOHH protein have more than 55% identity. The conservative regions are very similar with each other. The phylogenetic tree analysis indicated that not only DHS but also DOHH from different species has genus-specific features. The expressions of BmDHS and BmDOHH are no tissue and stage specific in our tested samples.
WANG Geng-xianSIMA Yang-huZHANG Sheng-xiangXU Shi-qing
