Myostatin (MSTN) is a potent negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth. MSTN propeptide (MSTNpro) inhibits MSTN binding to its receptor through complex formation with MSTN, implying that MSTNpro can be a useful agent to improve skeletal muscle growth in meat-producing animals. Four different truncated forms of pig MSTNpro containing N-terminal maltose binding protein (MBP) as a fusion partne...

Production of milligram quantities of numerous proteins for structural and functional studies requires an efficient purification pipeline. We found that the dual tag, his(6)-tag-maltose-binding protein (MBP), intended to facilitate purification and enhance proteins' solubility, disrupted such a pipeline, requiring additional screening and purification steps. Not all proteins rendered soluble by...

Myc-binding protein-1 (MBP-1) is a 37-kDa protein with sequence homology to the 3* portion of the a-enolase gene. a-Enolase is a 48-kDa protein, which plays a critical role in the glycolytic pathway. MBP-1 binds to the c-myc P2 promoter and down-regulates c-myc expression. We have investigated the role of a-enolase in regulation of the c-myc protooncogene. RNase protection assay shows that a-en...

Oligosaccharide recognition by three mammalian mannose-binding proteins was investigated by using as probes a series of structurally characterized neoglycolipids in t.l.c. binding assays. The neoglycolipids were derived from N-linked oligosaccharides of complex, high-mannose and hybrid types and from human milk oligosaccharides and simple di- and tri-saccharides. The three proteins, namely the ...

Aspartate ammonia-lyase (AAL) catalyzes the reversible conversion reactions of aspartate to fumaric acid and ammonia. In this work, Lactobacillus paracasei LpAAL gene was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. As well as a recombinant His-tagged protein, maltose-binding protein (MBP) fused used enhance its solubility expression level. Both proteins showed broad substrate specificity, cat...

The 42 amino acid Alzheimer's Abeta peptide has been produced in E. coli as a soluble fusion to maltose binding protein (MBP). Affinity purification on amylose columns of MBP-Abeta and MBP led to the recovery of proteins at purities that were suited for physicochemical analyses. MBP-Abeta was able to bind approximately 2 mole equivalents of copper or 4 mole equivalents of zinc, while MBP alone ...

A receptor binding to the C1q subcomponent of complement has been reported by many workers. In this paper we report for the first time that C1q receptor binds not only to C1q, but also to three other structurally similar ligands, namely mannan binding protein (MBP), conglutinin, and lung surfactant protein (SP-A). All these ligands have been reported to enhance removal of species bound to their...

Protein dynamics have been suggested to have a crucial role in biomolecular recognition, but the precise molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Herein, we performed single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer measurements for wild-type maltose-binding protein (MBP) and its variants to demonstrate the interplay of conformational dynamics and molecular recognition. Kinetic analysis provi...

Maltose-binding protein (MBP) is essential for maltose transport and chemotaxis in Escherichia coli. To perform these functions it must interact with two sets of cytoplasmic membrane proteins, the MalFGK transport complex and the chemotactic signal transducer Tar. MBP is present at high concentrations, on the order of 1 mM, in the periplasm of maltose-induced or malTc constitutive cells. To det...