• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.224-227
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• 1998

The expression of ferritin involved in iron metabolism is regulated at the translational level by the interaction of iron regulatory protein with iron-responsive element(IRE) in the 5'-untranslated region of ferritin transcript. To identify the role of structural element utilized for translational regulation of ferritin, we studied the effects of mutations in the ferritin IRE by measuring IRP binding activity and translational activity. Our data suggest that the cytosine at bulged position of IRE within ferritin is important for the formation of RNA secondary structure involved in translational regulation.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.62-65
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• 1999

Iron regulatory proteins (IRPs) 1 and 2 bind with equally high affinity to specific RNA stem-loop sequences known as iron-responsive elements (IRE) which mediate the post-transcriptional regulation of many genes of iron metabolism. To study putative IRE-like sequences in RNA transcripts using the IRP-IRE interaction, Eight known genes from database were selected and the RNA binding activity of IRE-like sequences were compared to IRP-2. Among them, the IRE-like sequence in 3'-untranslational region (UTR) of divalent ration transporter-1 (DCT-1) shows a significant RNA binding affinity. This finding predicts that IRE consensus sequence present within 3'-UTR of DCT-1 might confer the regulation by IRP-2.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.163-168
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• 2002

We report for the first time the cDNA sequence encoding a ferritin subunit from the spiders Araneus ventricosus. The complete cDNA sequence of A. ventricosus ferritin subunit comprised 516 bp with 172 amino acid residues. The A. ventricosus ferritin subunit cDNA contained a conserved iron responsive element sequence in the 5 untranslated region. An alignment of the deduced protein sequence of the A. ventricosus ferritin subunit gene to that of other heavy chain ferritin molecules showed that A. ventricosus ferritin subunit is most similar to the great pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, ferritin with 70.2% of protein sequence identity.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2006

Ferritin is a major eukaryotic protein and in humans is the protein of iron storage. A partial gene fragment of ferritin (255 bp) taken from the total RNA of Periserrula leucophryna, was amplified by RT-PCR using oligonucleotide primers designed from the conserved metal binding domain of eukaryotic ferritin and confirmed by DNA sequencing. Using the $^{32}P-labeled$ partial ferritin cDNA fragment, 28 different clones were obtained by the screening of the P. leucophryna cDNA library prepared in the Uni-ZAP XR vector, sequenced and characterized. The longest clone was named the PLF (Periserrula leucophryna ferritin) gene and the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of this novel gene were deposited in the GenBank databases with accession numbers DQ207752 and ABA55730, respectively. The entire cDNA of PLF clone was 1109 bp (CDS: 129-653), including a coding nucleotide sequence of 525 bp, a 5' -untranslated region of 128 bp, and a 3'-noncoding region of 456 bp. The 5'-UTR contains a putative iron responsive element (IRE) sequence. Ferritin has an open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of 174 amino acids including a hydrophobic signal peptide of 17 amino acids. The predicted molecular weights of the immature and mature ferritin were calculated to be 20.3 kDa and 18.2 kDa, respectively. The region encoding the mature ferritin was subcloned into the pT7-7 expression vector after PCR amplification using the designed primers and included the initiation and termination codons; the recombinant clones were expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) or E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysE. SDS-PAGE and western blot analysis showed that a ferritin of approximately 18 kDa (mature form) was produced and that by iron staining in native PAGE, it is likely that the recombinant ferritin is correctly folded and assembled into a homopolymer composed of a single subunit.