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Biomedical subjects

L D Owens

Publications and source records attributed to L D Owens.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

A single amino acid substitution in the antimicrobial defense protein cecropin B is associated with diminished degradation by leaf intercellular fluid.

Degradation is one of several factors that may affect the level of accumulation of transgene products in plants. In plants engineered to secrete antimicrobial proteins to the intercellular compartment of leaves, the degenerative activity of proteases residing in leaf intercellular fluid (IF) could be critical to achieving the expected transgene function. We synthesized a structural analogue (MB39) of the antibacterial protein cecropin B and compared the susceptibility of both proteins to degradation in vitro by IF extracted from leaves of various crops. The half-life of the two proteins in the various IF extracts ranged from 3 min to 25.5 h, with the analogue MB39 displaying the longer half-life in IF from nine of 10 species. Overall, the half-life of MB39 averaged 2.9 times greater than that of cecropin B. Analysis of the peptides produced by endopeptidase activity in potato iF indicated that the 5.7-fold lower degradation rate of MB39 was associated with the substitution of valine for methionine at residue 11 of cecropin B. These findings point to the possibility of tailoring antimicrobial protein genes to reduce the rate of protein degradation in a particular target crop.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Selenocysteyl-tRNAs recognize UGA in Beta vulgaris, a higher plant, and in Gliocladium virens, a filamentous fungus.

Selenocysteyl-tRNAs that decode UGA were previously identified in representatives of three of the five life kingdoms which were the monera, animal and protist kingdoms. In the present study, we show that these tRNAs also occur in representatives of the two remaining kingdoms, plants and fungi; i.e., selenocysteyl-tRNAs which code for UGA occur in Beta vulgaris, a higher plant, and in Gliocladium virens, a filamentous fungus. The fact that selenocysteyl-tRNAs are present in all five life kingdoms strongly suggests that UGA, in addition to dictating the cessation of protein synthesis, also codes for selenocysteine in the universal genetic code.

Base Sequence↗