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Showing papers by "Fei Li published in 2002"


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2002-Genome
TL;DR: Homology modeling of structures using Torpedo californica and Drosophila melanogaster native acetylcholinesterase structure as main template indicated that the two cloned AChEs of Aphis gossypii might have different three-dimensional structures.
Abstract: Two acetylcholinesterase (AChE) genes, Ace1 and Ace2, have been cloned from cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technique. To the best of our knowledge, this should be the first direct molecular evidence that multiple AChE genes exist in insects. The Ace1 gene was successfully amplified along its full length of 2371 bp. The open reading frame is 2031 bp long and encodes 676 amino acids (GenBank accession No. AF502082). The Ace2 gene was amplified as a mega-fragment of 2130 bp lacking part of 5'-end untranslated region (UTR). The open reading frame is 1992 bp long and ecodes a protein of 664 amino acids (GenBank accession No. AF502081). Both genes have the conserved amino acids and features shared by the AChE family, but share only 35% identity in amino acid sequence. The Ace1 gene is highly homologous to the AChE gene of Schizaphis graminum (AF321574) with 95% identity, and Ace2 to that of Myzus persicae (AF287291) with 92% identity. Phylogenetic analysis...

73 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Investigation revealed that crude extract and purified AChE had different kinetic characteristics and inhibitory properties, and responded differently to varied DTNB, ATChI, and phosphate buffer ion concentrations, as well as pH, temperature, and inhibitors.
Abstract: A simple and effective method was set up to purify acetylcholinesterase (AChE, EC3.1.1.7) from the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover. The procedure involved filtration on a sephadex G-25 column, separation with sephadex G-200 and procainamide affinity column. AChE from both susceptible and resistant strains were purified to a single band as resolved on denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The specific activity increased by 35,100- and 33,680-fold with a yield of 30.3 and 29.8%, respectively. The molecular mass of the purified AChE was about 63,500 Dalton as determined by SDS-PAGE. However, three bands resolved on PAGE gel electrophoresis, leading to the inference that native AChE exists in three forms. The optimum conditions for measuring the activity of purified AChE with kinetic method were 0.02M phosphate buffer, pH7.2, 0.02 mM 5,5'-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB), and 25 degrees C. Investigation also revealed that crude extract and purified AChE had different kinetic characteristics and inhibitory properties. They responded differently to varied DTNB, ATChI, and phosphate buffer ion concentrations, as well as pH, temperature, and inhibitors. The purified AChE was more sensitive to eserine, methamidophos, and pirimicarb. Especially for resistant aphids, the sensitivity of purified AChE to methamidophos and pirimicarb was enhanced 6.43 and 11.73 times, respectively. We infer that one or more factors in the crude extract from the resistance strain have more influence on AChE sensitivity. Further study is needed to investigate the basis of these observations.

60 citations