• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.81-84
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• 1990

The chloroplast has been the prime light-energy harvesting organelle on earth. It also carries out several key metabolic processes, such as lipid synthesis and nitrogen metabolism. Even though the chloroplast has its own genome, its coding capacity can afford only dozens of proteins, and most of the proteins functioning in the chloroplast are imported from the cytosol where nuclear encoded chloroplast genes are synthesized on free cytosokic ribosomes. Precursor proteins synthesized on cytosolic ribosomes have transit peptides at the amino termini of the proteins, and the transit peptide is sufficient to transfer chloroplast proteins from the cytosol into the chloroplast. When comparing amino acid sequences duduced from the nucleotide sequences of the clones of the chloroplast proteins, high homologies can be found among the transit peptides of proteins with the same function. Overall amino acid compositions of the transit peptides show amphiphilic characters of the transit peptides, and the amphiphilicity indicates that three dimensional structure of the transit peptide is responsible for the translocation of the chloroplast proteins.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.161-167
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• 2018

Chloroplasts are present in organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. These organelles are thought to have originated from photosynthetic cyanobacteria through endosymbiosis. During endosymbiosis, most cyanobacterial genes were transferred to the host nucleus. Therefore, most chloroplast proteins became encoded in the nuclear genome and must return to the chloroplast after translation. The N-terminal cleavable transit peptide (TP) is necessary and sufficient for the import of nucleus-encoded interior chloroplast proteins. Over the past decade, extensive research on the TP has revealed many important characteristic features of TPs. These studies have also shed light on the question of how the many diverse TPs could have evolved to target specific proteins to the chloroplast. In this review, we summarize the characteristic features of TPs. We also highlight recent advances in our understanding of TP evolution and provide future perspectives about this important research area.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.115-121
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• 2000

A cDNA clone encoding chloroplast triosephosphate isomerase (TPI-cp) was isolated from strawberry fruit cDNA library. Sequence analyses indicated that the cDNA contains an open reading frame of 314 amino acids (33.5 kDa) composed of a transit peptide (59 amino acids) in amino terminal region and mature protein (255 amino acids). The existence of transit peptide in the deduced amino acid sequence implies that it encodes a chloroplast isoform. The protein sequence is more similar to other plant chloroplast isoforms than cytosolic isoforms. RNA blot analysis indicated that its expression is ubiquitous in examined five tissues, flowers, leaves, petioles, roots and fruits, and shows differential pattern according to fruit ripening. Genomic DNA blot analysis showed that TPI-cp is encoded by multiple genes in strawberry. Through sequence comparison and phylogenetic tree construction, TPI-cp is distinctively grouped into dicot and chloroplast isoforms.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.150-151
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• 1998

Drug delivery to the brain is facilitated by the synthesis of chimeric peptides, where in neuropharmaceuticals are linked to a vector such as an antibody to the transferrin receptor that mediates transcytosis through the blood-brain barrier (BBB). When disulfide linkers are used in the chimeric peptide, it is crucial that the S-S bridge is stable during transit and that cleavage does not occur prematurely within endothelial cells, as the peptide drug moiety would then be sequestered by the BBB instead of passing through it. The present study addressed that problem. As a model drug a metabolically stable opioid peptide, [$^3$H]DALDA (Tyr-dArg-Phe-Lys-NH$_2$), was used. It was monobiotinylated with NHS-SS-biotin to yield bio-[$^3$H]DALDA. The biotinylated peptide was bound to the vector OX26-SA which is a covalent conjugate of OX26 and streptavidin (molar ratio = 1: 1). In vitro treatment of the chimeric peptide, bio-[$^3$H]DALDA/OX26-SA, with a reducing agent, dithiothreitol, released the labeled peptide from the vector by conversion of bio-[$^3$H]DALDA to the desbiotinylated derivative, desbio-[$^3$H]DALDA.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1563-1568
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• 2010

In the course of a research concerning the molecular mechanism of hypocotyl elongation that occurs during soybean seedling growth in darkness, we have generated a number of ESTs from a cDNA library prepared from the hypocotyls of dark-grown soybean seedlings. Comparison of the ESTs assigned a cDNA clone as a putative plastidic ATP-binding-cassette (ABC) protein homologue. The soybean GmNAP1 protein contains an N-terminal transit peptide which targets it into the chloroplast. The transcription level of the GmNAP1 gene was investigated under continuous red light, continuous far-red light, and complete darkness. The main function of this NAP1 protein is the transport of protoporphyrin IX which is the precursor of chlorophyll from the cytoplasm to the chloroplast. The GmNAP1 gene was transferred into the Arabidopsis under the CaMV 35S promoter. The chlorophyll level of this transgenic Arabidopsis plant was much higher than the chlorophyll level of the wild type Arabidopsis plant.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.173-176
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• 1997

We isolated a cDNA clone that encodes a ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunit (rbcS) from spinach using a soybean rbcS cDNA as a probe. The small subunit consists of 180 amino acids including a transit peptide of 57 residues. Comparison of the amino acid sequence with those of other plant species shows a maximum of 70-80% identical residues. Southern blot analysis suggests the existence of multiple rbcS genes in the spinach genome. Northern blot analysis indicates that the rbcS gene is expressed predominantly in leaves and that the expression of the gene is induced by light.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 1989

Polysomal polyadenylated mRNAs which were purified from pea leaves were fractionated by sucrose grandient sedimentation. Fractions corresponding to the peak at 11.5S were found to contain mostly mRNA encoding the precursor polypeptide to the small subunit of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (rbcS) by in vitro translation in wheat germ extract. Double-stranded cDNA which was synthesized from the 11.5S mRNA was cloned into Hind III site of plasmid pBR 325. A cDNA clone, H24, was identified to code for rbcS. In vitro translation product of the hybridization-selected mRNA was molecular weight 20,000, presumably the precursor of rbcS. The nucleotide sequences of the H24 showed almost complete homology with the sequences encoding the transit peptide of the rbcS-3A gene which was reported by Fluhr et al.(1986).

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.361-369
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• 1994

To study the light-induced expression mechanism and protein transport into the chloroplast, a rice genomic clone (GrbcS) for the small subunit of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (rbcS) was isolated and its nucleotide sequence was determined. Nucleotide sequence analysis of GrbcS revealed that the gene consists of two exons interrupted by an intron, encoding a protein of 175 amino acids including a transit peptide of 47 amino acids. These structural features of GrbcS are consistent with those of other rbcS genes from monocot species. Genomic Southern blot analysis suggested that the rbcS genes are present as a relatively small multigene family in the rice genome. Comparison of the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences to other rice rbcSs shows close sequence similaritiy. Conserved DNA sequences present in other light-responsive genes are also found in the 5’ upstream region of GrbcS such as G-box, 3AF1-binding site and GATA site. The possible function of these putative regulatory elements are discussed.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.46-55
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• 1999

The expressed sequence tags(ESTs) from immature seed of rice, Oryza sativa cv Milyang 23, were partially sequenced and analyzed by homology. As of 1998, the partial sequences of about 6,600 cDNA clones were analyzed from normal and normalized immature seed cDNA libraries. About 2,200 ESTs were putatively identified by BLASTX deduced amino acid sequence homology analysis. About 20% of them were putatively identified as storage proteins. Also the clones were highly homologous to genes involved particularly in starch biosynthesis, glycolysis, signal transduction and defenses. Compared to 35% of redundancy in the ESTs of normal cDNA library, that from the substracted library was 15%. The Korea Rice Genome Network is maintained to provide the updated information of sequences, their homologies and sequence alignments of ESTs. For the stable expression of transgene in rice, diverse vectors were developed for overexpression, targeting and gene dosage effect with transit peptides (Tp) and matrix attachment region (MAR) sequence from chicken lysozyme locus. The rice calli were transformed via Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404(pSB1) with the triparental mating technique and selected by herbicide resistance. The green fluorescent protein(GFP) gene in expression vector under the control of rbcS promoter-Tp was overexpressed upto 10 % of the total soluble protein. In addition, the Tp-sGFP fusion protein was properly processed during translocation into chloroplast. The expression of sGFP in the presence of MAR sequences was analyzed with Northern and immunoblot analysis. All the lines in which sGFP transgene with MAR sequence, showed position independent and copy number-dependent expression, while the lines without MAR showed the varied level of expression with the integration site. Thus the MAR sequence significantly reduced the variation in transgene expression between independent transformants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1094-1099
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• 2005

Photosynthetic dinoflagellates contain a water-soluble, light-harvesting antenna called the peridinin-chlorophyll-protein (PCP) complex, which has an apoprotein with no sequence similarity to other known proteins. There are two forms of PCP apoproteins; the 15-kDa short form and the 32- to 35­kDa long form. The present study describes the PCP protein and its cDNA from Alexandrium tamarense. A cDNA library was constructed from mRNA isolated from A. tamarense. The complete PCP cDNA was generated by reverse-transcription coupled to polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), together with rapid-amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The A. tamarense PCP cDNA encoded a 55-amino acid signal peptide and a 313-amino acid mature protein with a calculated mass of 32 kDa, which corresponded to that of the long form of PCP. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the sequence of A. tamarense PCP did not cluster with the short-form PCPs, to which it was only about $55\%$ identical, but which were $79-83\%$ identical to other long-form PCPs. The deduced amino acid sequence of A. tamarense PCP contains an internal duplication, which suggests the possibility that long-form PCPs arose by gene duplication or by the fusion of genes encoding the short form. The abundance of PCP mRNA changed substantially in response to different light conditions, indicating the possible existence of a photo-acclimation response in A. tamarense.