When a chimeric gene encoding a ubiquitin-beta-galactosidase fusion protein is expressed in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ubiquitin is cleaved off the nascent fusion protein, yielding a deubiquitinated beta-galactosidase (beta gal). With one exception, this cleavage takes place regardless of the nature of the amino acid residue of beta gal at the ubiquitin-beta gal junction, thereby making it possible to expose different residues at the amino-termini of the otherwise identical beta gal proteins. The beta gal proteins thus designed have strikingly different half-lives in vivo, from more than 20 hours to less than 3 minutes, depending on the nature of the amino acid at the amino-terminus of beta gal. The set of individual amino acids can thus be ordered with respect to the half-lives that they confer on beta gal when present at its amino-terminus (the "N-end rule"). The currently known amino-terminal residues in long-lived, noncompartmentalized intracellular proteins from both prokaryotes and eukaryotes belong exclusively to the stabilizing class as predicted by the N-end rule. The function of the previously described posttranslational addition of single amino acids to protein amino-termini may also be accounted for by the N-end rule. Thus the recognition of an amino-terminal residue in a protein may mediate both the metabolic stability of the protein and the potential for regulation of its stability.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/234/4773/179.full.pdf

In Vivo Half-Life of a Protein is a Function of its Amino-Terminal Residue

https://mmbr.asm.org/content/mmbr/56/4/592.full.pdf

Regulation by proteolysis: energy-dependent proteases and their targets.

The ability to design and construct synthetic gene regulatory networks offers the prospect of studying issues related to cellular function in a simplified context; such networks also have many potential applications in biotechnology. A synthetic network exhibiting oscillatory behavior has recently been constructed [Elowitz, M. B. & Leibler, S. (2000) Nature (London) 403, 335–338]. It has also been shown that a natural bacterial quorum-sensing mechanism can be used in a synthetic system to communicate a signal between two populations of cells, such that receipt of the signal causes expression of a target gene [Weiss, R. & Knight, T. F. (2000) in DNA6: Sixth International Meeting on DNA-Based Computers, June 13–17, 2000, Leiden, The Netherlands]. We propose a synthetic gene network in Escherichia coli which combines these two features: the system acts as a relaxation oscillator and uses an intercell signaling mechanism to couple the oscillators and induce synchronous oscillations. We model the system and show that the proposed coupling scheme does lead to synchronous behavior across a population of cells. We provide an analytical treatment of the synchronization process, the dominant mechanism of which is “fast threshold modulation.”

/pdf/synchronizing-genetic-relaxation-oscillators-by-intercell-1ymtqpn42v.pdf

Synchronizing genetic relaxation oscillators by intercell signaling.

High-level expression of bovine growth hormone in Escherichia coli results in the formation of distinct cytoplasmic granules that are visible with the phase-contrast microscope. These granules were examined by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Intact granules were isolated from crude cell lysates by differential centrifugation and were further purified by a simple washing procedure that yields nearly homogeneous bovine growth hormone.

Isolation and Purification of Protein Granules from Escherichia coli Cells Overproducing Bovine Growth Hormone

Recombinant human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) protease, purified from a bacterial expression system, processed a recombinant form of its natural substrate, Pr55gag, into protein fragments that possess molecular weights commensurate with those of the virion gag proteins. Molecular weights of the protease obtained under denaturing and nondenaturing conditions (11,000 and 22,000, respectively) and chemical crosslinking studies were consistent with a dimeric structure for the active enzyme. The protease appropriately cleaved the nonapeptide Ac-Arg-Ala-Ser-Gln-Asn-Tyr-Pro-Val-Val-NH2 between the tyrosine and proline residues. HIV-1 protease was sensitive to inactivators of the aspartic proteases. The aspartic protease inactivator 1,2-epoxy-3-(4-nitrophenoxy)propane produced irreversible, time-dependent inactivation of the protease. The pH-dependent kinetics of this inactivator were consistent with the requirement of an unprotonated carboxyl group in the active site of the enzyme, suggesting that HIV-1 protease is also an aspartic protease.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/86/6/1841.full.pdf

Human immunodeficiency virus 1 protease expressed in Escherichia coli behaves as a dimeric aspartic protease

https://www.jbc.org/content/257/15/9128.full.pdf

Y Ho

Papers

Purification and properties of a transcriptional activator. The cII protein of phage lambda.