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Biomedical subjects

W F Swain

Publications and source records attributed to W F Swain.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Stable transformation of soybean by electroporation and root formation from transformed callus.

Soybean protoplasts from a number of commercially important cultivars have been genetically engineered by way of electroporation using chimeric genes coding for resistance to the aminoglycoside antibiotics kanamycin and G418. Effective electroporation conditions were determined by monitoring transient expression from aminoglycoside 3'-phosphotransferase II (APHII) expression plasmids. Electroporation of protoplasts with a chimeric APHII gene and subsequent selection on media supplemented with kanamycin resulted in the recovery of calli resistant to the antibiotic. Enzyme assays for APHII activity and Southern blot hybridization confirmed the expression of the foreign DNA and its stable integration into the soybean genome. Root formation was induced from transformed calli, and these roots maintained expression of the APHII gene.

Journal Article↗

Nucleotide sequence analysis of a proline-rich protein cDNA and peptide homologies of rat and human proline-rich proteins.

Plasmids containing cDNAs for proline-rich proteins have been isolated from a cDNA library prepared from parotid glands of isoproterenol-treated rats. The nucleotide sequence of one of these cDNAs (pRP33) has been determined, and it encodes an acidic proline-rich protein. The N-terminal 13 amino acids are highly hydrophobic and may be part of a signal peptide. The next 66 amino acids constitute an acidic domain which is interrupted by a short (8 residue) basic region. The sequence beginning at proline 80 contains six tandemly repeated regions of 18 to 19 amino acids in length with the prototype sequence PPPQGGPQXPPQPGXPQG. Two pairs of these repeats (amino acid residues 116 to 152 and 153 to 189) are 93% homologous in nucleotide sequence. The high homology in both nucleotide and amino acid sequences in the repeat region suggests that this protein may have evolved by duplication of internal portions of a progenitor gene.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Isolation and characterization of a rat amylase gene family.

Portions of at least nine distinct rat amylase genes or pseudogenes have been isolated. Cloned rat genomic DNA fragments containing complete or major portions of seven of these have been examined by heteroduplex analysis and fall within two separate groups based on their degree of homology. Four gene sequences comprising one of these groups are closely related to pancreatic amylase mRNA. The other group shows significant nonhomology to both pancreatic and parotid amylase cDNAs and may represent an additional gene type(s). All of the cloned amylase gene sequences are found in rat genomic DNA. Additional amylase sequences which have not yet been cloned are also detected. Comparison of DNA from individual Sprague-Dawley rats by Southern blotting techniques indicates allelic variation at multiple amylase loci.

Amylases↗

Rat preprocarboxypeptidase A: cDNA sequence and preliminary characterization of the gene.

Rat carboxypeptidase A cDNA clones have been isolated from a cDNA library prepared from pancreatic mRNA. An almost complete mRNA sequence has been deduced that predicts a polypeptide having 78% amino acid sequence homology with bovine carboxypeptidase A. The amino acid sequence of the activation and signal peptides of the carboxypeptidase A precursor were inferred from the nucleotide sequence. The cDNA was used as a probe to identify DNA fragments containing carboxypeptidase A sequences in a bacteriophage lambda library of rat genomic DNA. Heteroduplexes revealed that the DNA coding sequence occupies 5.5 kilobases and is interrupted by nine intervening sequences. The nucleotide sequence of the 5' end of the gene and the adjacent flanking region provides information on the site of initiation of transcription and the putative control regions. There is no evident relationship between the localization of intervening sequences in the gene and functional/structural domains of the protein.

Animals↗

Pancreas-specific genes: structure and expression.

Via recombinant DNA technology the mRNA sequence of pancreatic amylase has been cloned and its nucleotide sequence has been determined. The cloned sequence represents 96% of the total length of amylase mRNA; missing are an estimated 75 +/- 30 nucleotides from the 5' end. The amino acid sequence of rat pancreatic amylase was deduced solely from the nucleotide sequence of the mRNA. Unlike other eukaryotic mRNAs, the amylase mRNA has short 5' and 5' untranslated regions, suggesting that long untranslated regions of eukaryotic mRNAs either do not contain extensive functional sequences or that these sequences are incorporated within the amino acid coding region of amylase mRNA. The cloned amylase mRNA sequence was radiolabeled and used as a probe for in situ hybridization. These experiments demonstrate that amylase mRNA is present in all acinar cells but not in other pancreatic cell types. Using the cloned amylase mRNA sequences as a hybridization probe, three nonoverlapping genomic DNA fragments containing amylase gene sequences were isolated. From the similar sequence organization of the three amylase genes visualized by DNA heteroduplex mapping, a consensus structure of a rat amylase gene is proposed. It is an extended gene structure 10 kilobase pairs in length containing the 1547 base pairs of the cloned mRNA coding sequence interrupted by seven intervening sequences ranging from 400-2000 base pairs long. Thus, in nuclear DNA the amylase mRNA coding sequence is disrupted into at least eight segments from 150-300 base pairs long.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Structure of a family of rat amylase genes.

The sequences of two cloned rat pancreatic amylase cDNAs comprising 95% of the mRNA sequence are reported. Analysis of cloned rat genomic DNA fragments using cloned cDNA probes indicates that the rat genome contains multiple closely related amylase genes in which the cDNA sequences are distributed within a region 9 kilobases in length and are interrupted by at least seven intervening sequences.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Mechanism of action of putrescine oxidase. Binding characteristics of the active site of putrescine oxidase from Micrococcus rubens.

Putrescine oxidase (EC 1.4.3.4), putrescine: oxygen oxidoreductase (deaminating) (flavin containing), has been found to form complexes with a variety of amines. With few exceptions these compounds competitively inhibit putrescine oxidation and also perturb the visible absorption spectrum of the enzyme (i.e., the spectrum due to FAD). Inhibition constants are reported for a number of amines; the presence of a cationic amino group in the inhibitors appears to be the structural feature essential for competitive inhibition. Inhibition constants for amino acids are larger than those for the analogous simple amines and the inhibition constants for alkyl mono- and diamines in a homologous series are inversely related to the length of the hydrocarbon chain. Amines containing unsaturated and aromatic substituents yield relatively low inhibition constants. The spectral changes observed upon complex formation are interpreted as indicating a less polar environment for FAD in the enzyme-inhibitor complex than in the uncomplexed enzyme. On the basis of the enzyme's substrate specificity and comparisons among inhibitor structures and the corresponding inhibition constants, a schematic model of the enzyme's active site is proposed.

Amines↗