Cell wall-localized Bt protein endows rice high resistance to Lepidoptera pests

BACKGROUND

The commercialized Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) crops accumulate Bt protein within cells, but the intracellular interactions of foreign protein with endogenous protein inevitably result in large or small unintended effects. In this study, the Bt gene Cry1Ca was linked with the sequences of extracellular secretion signal peptide and carbohydrate binding module 11 to constitute a fusion gene SP-Cry1Ca-CBM11, and the fusion gene driven by constitutive promoters was used for secreting and anchoring onto the cell wall to minimize unintended effects.

RESULTS

The transient expression in tobacco leaves demonstrated that the fusion protein was anchored on cell walls. The Cry1Ca contents of five homozygous rice transformants of single-copy insertion were different and descended in the order leaf > root > stem. The maximum content of Cry1Ca was 17.55 μg g-1 in leaves of transformant 21H037. The bioassay results revealed that the transformants exhibited high resistance to lepidopteran pests. The corrected mortality of pink stem borer (Sesamia inferens) and striped stem borer (Chilo suppressalis) ranged from 96.33% to 100%, and from 83.32% to 100%, respectively, and the corrected mortality of rice leaf roller (Cnaphalocrocis medinalis) was 92.53%. Besides, the agronomic traits of the five transformants were normal and similar to that of the recipient, and the transformants were highly resistant to glyphosate at the germination and seedling stages.

CONCLUSION

The fusion Bt protein was accumulated on cell walls and endowed the rice with high resistance to lepidopteran pests without unintended effects in agronomic traits. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Molecular binding of different classes of organophosphates to methyl parathion hydrolase from Ochrobactrum species

Methyl parathion hydrolase (MPH) is an enzyme of the metallo-β-lactamase superfamily, which hydrolyses a wide range of organophosphates (OPs). Recently, MPH has attracted attention as a promising enzymatic bioremediator. The crystal structure of MPH enzyme shows a dimeric form, with each subunit containing a binuclear metal ion center. MPH also demonstrates metal ion-dependent selectivity patterns. The origins of these patterns remain unclear but are linked to open questions about the more general role of metal ions in functional evolution and divergence within enzyme superfamilies. We aimed to investigate and compare the binding of different OP pesticides to MPH with cobalt(II) metal ions. In this study, MPH was modeled from Ochrobactrum sp. with different OP pesticides bound, including methyl paraoxon and dichlorvos and profenofos. The docked structures for each substrate optimized by DFT calculation were selected and subjected to atomistic molecular dynamics simulations for 500 ns. It was found that alpha metal ions did not coordinate with all the pesticides. Rather, the pesticides coordinated with less buried beta metal ions. It was also observed that the coordination of beta metal ions was perturbed to accommodate the pesticides. The binding free energy calculations and structure-based pharmacophore model revealed that all the three substrates could bind well at the active site. However, profenofos exhibit a stronger binding affinity to MPH in comparison to the other two substrates. Therefore, our findings provide molecular insight on the binding of different OP pesticides which could help us design the enzyme for OP pesticides degradation.

Effective remediation and decontamination of organophosphorus compounds using enzymes: From rational design to potential applications

Organophosphorus compounds (OPs) have been widely used in agriculture for decades because of their high insecticidal efficiency, which maintains and increases crop yields worldwide. More importantly, OPs, as typical chemical warfare agents, are a serious concern and significant danger for military and civilian personnel. The widespread use of OPs, superfluous and unreasonable use, has caused great harm to the environment and food chain. Developing efficient and environmentally friendly solutions for the decontamination of OPs is a long-term challenge. Microbial enzymes show potential application as natural and green biocatalysts. Thus, utilizing OP-degrading enzymes for environmental decontamination presents significant advantages, as these enzymes can rapidly hydrolyze OPs; are environmentally friendly, nonflammable, and noncorrosive; and can be discarded safely and easily. Here, the properties, structure and catalytic mechanism of various typical OP-degrading enzymes are reviewed. The methods and effects utilized to improve the expression level, catalytic performance and stability of OP-degrading enzymes were systematically summarized. In addition, the immobilization of OP-degrading enzymes was explicated emphatically, and the latest progress of cascade reactions based on immobilized enzymes was discussed. Finally, the latest applications of OP-degrading enzymes were summarized, including biosensors, nanozyme mimics and medical detoxification. This review provides guidance for the future development of OP-degrading enzymes and promotes their application in the field of environmental bioremediation and medicine.

Overview of a bioremediation tool: organophosphorus hydrolase and its significant application in the food, environmental, and therapy fields

In the past decades, the organophosphorus compounds had been widely used in the environment and food industries as pesticides. Owing to the life-threatening and long-lasting problems of organophosphorus insecticide (OPs), an effective detection and removal of OPs have garnered growing attention both in the scientific and practical fields in recent years. Bacterial organophosphorus hydrolases (OPHs) have been extensively studied due to their high specific activity against OPs. OPH could efficiently hydrolyze a broad range of substrates both including the OP pesticides and some nerve agents, suggesting a great potential for the remediation of OPs. In this review, the microbial identification, molecular modification, and practical application of OPHs were comprehensively discussed.Key points• Microbial OPH is a significant bioremediation tool against OPs.• Identification and molecular modification of OPH was discussed in detail.• The applications of OPH in food, environmental, and therapy fields are presented.

Optimization of expression, purification and secretion of functional recombinant human growth hormone in Escherichia coli using modified staphylococcal protein a signal peptide

Background

Human Growth Hormone (hGH) is a glycoprotein released from the pituitary gland. Due to the wide range of effects in humans, any disruption in hGH secretion could have serious consequences. This highlights the clinical importance of hGH production in the treatment of different diseases associated with a deficiency of this hormone. The production of recombinant mature hormone in suitable hosts and secretion of this therapeutic protein into the extracellular space can be considered as one of the best cost-effective approaches not only to obtain the active form of the protein but also endotoxin-free preparation. Since the natural growth hormone signal peptide is of eukaryotic origin and is not detectable by any of the Escherichia coli secretory systems, including Sec and Tat, and is therefore unable to secrete hGH in the prokaryotic systems, designing a new and efficient signal peptide is essential to direct hGh to the extracellular space.

Results

In this study, using a combination of the bioinformatics design and molecular genetics, the protein A signal peptide from Staphylococcus aureus was modified, redesigned and then fused to the mature hGH coding region. The recombinant hGH was then expressed in E. coli and successfully secreted to the medium through the Sec pathway. Secretion of the hGH into the medium was verified using SDS-PAGE and western blot analysis. Recombinant hGH was then expressed in E. coli and successfully secreted into cell culture medium via the Sec pathway. The secretion of hGH into the extracellular medium was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis. Furthermore, the addition of glycine was shown to improve hGH secretion onto the culture medium. Equations for determining the optimal conditions were also determined. Functional hGH analysis using an ELISA-based method confirmed that the ratio of the active form of secreted hGH to the inactive form in the periplasm is higher than this ratio in the cytoplasm.

Conclusions

Since the native signal protein peptide of S. aureus protein A was not able to deliver hGH to the extracellular space, it was modified using bioinformatics tools and fused to the n-terminal region of hGh to show that the redesigned signal peptide was functional.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12896-021-00701-x.

Recent development and optimization of pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin immunotoxins in cancer therapeutic applications

Recombinant immunotoxins are fusion proteins composed of a peptide toxin and a specific targeting domain through genetic recombination. They are engineered to recognize disease-specific target receptors and kill the cell upon internalization. Full-sized monoclonal antibodies, smaller antibody fragments and ligands, such as a cytokine or a growth factor, have been commonly used as the targeting domain, while bacterial Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin (PE) is the usual toxin fusion partner, due to its natural cytotoxicity and other unique advantages. PE-based recombinant immunotoxins have shown remarkable efficacy in the treatment of tumors and autoimmune diseases. At the same time, efforts are underway to address major challenges, including immunogenicity, nonspecific cytotoxicity and poor penetration, which limit their clinical applications. Recent strategies for structural optimization of PE-based immunotoxins, combined with mutagenesis approaches, have reduced the immunogenicity and non-specific cytotoxicity, thus increasing both their safety and efficacy. This review highlights novel insights and design concepts that were used to advance immunotoxins for the treatment of hematological and solid tumors and also presents future development prospect of PE-based recombinant immunotoxins that are expected to play an important role in cancer therapy.

Simple colorimetric screening of paraquat residue in vegetables evaluated by localized surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles

The contamination of paraquat in vegetables is widely connected with human health risks, leading to the research interest in developing a paraquat sensing system. This work reports a simple detection method of paraquat based on the electrostatic interaction of paraquat and the negatively charged gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), resulting in the changes of colors from red to blue and the shifting of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peaks of AuNPs. The limit of detection concentration (C_LOD ) of this system was 100 μM paraquat. Moreover, among eight cationic salts tested, NaCl was selective to enhance the detection sensitivity of the system, resulting in the reduction of C_LOD to 0.10 μM. This system selectively detected paraquat, but not other tested herbicides (ametryn, atrazine, glyphosate, and 2,4-D-dimethyl ammonium). The paraquat-spiking experiment in kale demonstrated the significant recovery rate of paraquat at 96.0-103.0%, and the relative standard deviations were less than 4%. The developed system was efficient for screening contaminated paraquat in vegetables under unwashed and washed conditions. Three out of five unwashed vegetables had a significant level of paraquat as determined by LSPR values. These results suggested the potential application of this system for a simple screening of contaminated paraquat in vegetables. Simple paraquat-screening system was developed based on the negatively charged gold nanoparticles. The limit of paraquat detection of this system was 0.10 μM. This system was potentially used for a simple screening of contaminated paraquat in vegetables.

Recent advances and future prospective of organophosphorus-degrading enzymes: identification, modification, and application

The organophosphorus-based OPs) nerve agents and pesticides have been applied in the agriculture industry for a long time. However, they were found to have a persistent effect on the environment and threaten human health. Traditional methods, including incineration and landfilling, could not thoroughly remove these organophosphorus compounds (OPs). Meanwhile, chemical hydrolysis for decontamination was also inhibited due to the presence of corrosive materials and high costs. Biological remediation for OPs employing microorganisms and organophosphorus-degrading enzymes is promising due to a mild and controllable procedure, environmental-friendly reactions, and high efficacy. A wide variety of enzymes have shown latent ability in degrading OPs hazards like organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH), organophosphorus acid anhydrolase (OPAA), the diisopropylfluorophosphatase (DFPase), and mammalian paraoxonase 1 (PON 1). To this end, increasing efforts have been made on these intriguing enzymes to increase their expression level, enhance the catalytic activity, modify the optimal substrate, and expand the practical application. In this review, the enzyme resource, crystal structure, molecular modification, and industry application were compared and discussed in detail. Moreover, the proposed ideas and positive results could be useful for the other relevant OPs-degrading enzymes.

A comprehensive review on staphylococcal protein A (SpA): Its production and applications

The Staphylococcus aureus protein A (SpA) can be obtained through the culture of wild-type S. aureus and also as a recombinant protein in safe bacterial hosts. Several methods have been used to purify SpA among which ion-exchange chromatography, affinity chromatography, gel filtration, and per aqueous liquid chromatography (PALC) are common. SpA has a wide range of biochemical, biotechnological, and medical applications and is most commonly used in test methods such as immunoprecipitation, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and Western blotting. SpA has also been widely utilized in pharmaceutical applications to bind to immune complexes and serum immunoglobulins. SpA also directly binds to the B-cells preventing initiation of infectious diseases as well as having a role in the development of various autoimmune diseases. This review considers different applications of SpA in biotechnology and its novel clinical application for effective treatment of autoimmune diseases. It also discusses various strategies for expression and purification of the SpA including types of column chromatography that are commonly used in protein purification and developing SpA surface display technologies. Finally, this review highlights the potential and novel applications of SpA immobilization, SpA typing, protein engineering for further development of immunological and biochemical research, and also application of SpA as a diagnostic biosensor.

Secretory expression of negative regulatory region of human Notch1 in Escherichia coli and preparation of a functional polyclonal antibody

Notch signaling is a highly conserved pathway existed in multicellular organisms. It plays roles in normal human body development, human cancer initiation, progression and metastasis. The Notch negative regulatory region (NRR) is critical for Notch signaling, and cleavage at the S2 site in the NRR ultimately leads to the activation of Notch signaling. To study the function of human NRR1, we expressed the recombinant human NRR1 (rhNRR1) domain in Escherichia coli. After purification, rhNRR1 was obtained with approximately 94% purity according to SDS-PAGE analysis. Furthermore, the polyclonal anti-rhNRR1 serum raised by immunizing mouse with the purified rhNRR1 was able to reduce the generation of active form of Notch1 intracellular domain in HeLa cells, which implied the raised antibody could recognize and bind the natural conformation of Notch1 NRR. Preparation of rhNRR1 by this way is convenient, time-consuming, and could be used to the preparation of anti-NRR1 therapeutic antibody.