Purification and characterization of a ribonuclease from Aspergillus giganteus IFO 5818, the gigantin. Immunological and enzymic comparison with alphasarcin

A protein has been isolated from a culture medium of Aspergillus giganteus IFO 5818 (gigantin) and purified by ion-exchange chromatography successively on DEAE-cellulose and carboxymethyl-cellulose, and gel-filtration chromatography on Biogel P10. With a high purity, gigantin was found to be a non-glycosylated basic protein with a relative molecular mass of 17000 +/- 200 determined in PAGE/SDS. Gigantin was able to digest the synthetic homopolymers of nucleic acids poly(A), poly(I), poly(C) and poly(U). The catalytic action has an optimal pH around 7.0, an optimal temperature at 45-55 degrees C and can be inhibited by cations. Gigantin activity, analyzed as its capacity to hydrolyze RNA from yeast, was comparable to that of alphasarcin, a similar biochemical protein produced by the strain A. giganteus MDH 18894. A study of the substrate specificity for alphasarcin indicated a preference for poly(A) and poly(I), while gigantin had greater activity on poly(C) and poly(U). The cross reaction of gigantin with a rabbit antiserum to alphasarcin suggests a high sequence similarity between both proteins. However, gigantin is immunologically distinguishable from alphasarcin as alphasarcin antiserum detects epitopes in alphasarcin that are not present in gigantin.

Production and characterization of a monoclonal antibody against the ribosome inactivating protein alpha sarcin

In order to improve the purification of immunoconjugates containing alpha sarcin, a ribosome-inactivating protein, and in the attempt to define the enzymic region of the toxin, MAbs against alpha sarcin were produced. From 5 fusions, by adopting a short period of immunization and very low doses of the immunogen, 10 anti-toxin-producing clones were obtained. One of them, named MAsg2 (IgG2b), due to its specific reactivity and secreting properties, was selected for further characterization. MAsg2 was found to recognize an epitope which is common to two, i.e. alpha sarcin and clavatin, of the three different aspergillins tested, but is not involved in the active site of the toxins.