The recognition specificity of the pollen ligand of self-incompatibility (SP11/SCR) was investigated using Brassica rapa transgenic plants expressing SP11 transgenes, and SP11 of Raphanus sativus S-21 was found to have the same recognition specificity as that of B. rapa S-9. In a set of three S haplotypes, whose sequence identities of SP11 and SRK are fairly high, R. sativus S-6 showed the same...

The mechanism that mediates the interaction between contractile ring and plasma membrane during cytokinesis remains elusive. We previously found ERM (Ezrin/Radixin/Moesin) proteins, which usually mediate cellular pole contraction, become over-accumulated at cell equator support furrow ingression upon loss of other actin-membrane associated anillin supervillin. In this study, we addressed molecu...

Sox genes encode proteins related to each other, and to the sex determining gene Sry, by the presence of a DNA binding motif known as the HMG domain. Although HMG domains can bind to related DNA sequences, Sox gene products may achieve target gene specificity by binding to preferred target sequences or by interacting with specific partner proteins. To assess their functional similarities, we re...

The development of a spider silk-manufacturing process is of great interest. However, there are serious problems with natural manufacturing through spider farming, and standard recombinant protein production platforms have provided limited progress due to their inability to assemble spider silk proteins into fibers. Thus, we used piggyBac vectors to create transgenic silkworms encoding chimeric...

Virus-like particles (VLPs) of chimeric porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) were generated by replacing the nuclear localization signal (NLS; at 1-39 aa) of PCV2 capsid protein (Cap) with classical swine fever virus (CSFV) T-cell epitope (1446-1460 aa), CSFV B-cell epitope (693-716 aa) and CSFV T-cell epitope conjugated with B-cell epitope. The recombinant proteins were expressed using the baculov...

This study describes the initial testing of a novel strategy for neutralization of lentiviruses using the fundamental biology of enveloped viruses' assembly and budding. In the field of gene therapy, viral vector surface proteins have been manipulated in order to redirect host cell specificity by alteration of pseudo-types. This study tested whether known viral pseudo-typing proteins or surface...

The development of modular constructs that include antigenic regions targeted by protective immune responses is an attractive approach for subunit vaccine development. However, a main concern of using these vaccine platforms is how to preserve the antigenic identity of conformational B cell epitopes. In the present study we evaluated naturally acquired antibody responses to a chimeric protein e...

objective(s): the introduction of nucleic acids into cells for therapeutic objectives is significantly hindered by the size and charge of these molecules and therefore requires efficient vectors that assist cellular uptake. for several years great efforts have been devoted to the study of development of recombinant vectors based on biological domains with potential applications in gene therapy....

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is associated with the t(2;5)(p23;q35), which generates the NPM-ALK fusion gene encoding an 80-kD protein. Several studies have suggested that genes other than NPM may be fused to the ALK gene. Here we have identified TRK-fused gene (TFG) as a new ALK partner in 2 ALCL, 1 of which exhibited a t(2;3)(p23;q21). In these cases, TFG was involved in 2 different ...

background and objective: enterohemorrhagic escherichia coli (ehec) o157:h7 is an important enteric pathogen in human causing bloody or nonbloody diarrhea, which may be complicated by hemolytic uremic syndrome (hus). cattle are an important reservoir of ehec. this research aims at vaccination with a divalent chimer protein composed of espa 120 and intimin 282 and its preventive effect of ehec o...