Cell free system

In one of the early experiments designed to elucidate the genetic code, Marshall Nirenberg of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, 1968) prepared a synthetic mRNA in which all the bases were uracil. He added this poly(U) to a cell-free system containing all the necessary materials for protein biosynthesis. A polymer of a single amino acid was obtained. What amino acid was polymerized ... 

The cy tochalasins A, B, C, D, E, and H are found in various species of mould. Mainly cytochalasin B and D are used as experimental tools. Cytochalasin D is 10 times more potent, acting at concentrations between 2 and 35 nM in cell-free systems. Cy tochalasins bind to the barbed end of F-actin and block the addition as well as dissociation of G-actin at that end. At micromolar concentrations, cytochalasin D can bind to G-actin and actin dimers and thus block additional polymerization. When applied to cultured cells, micromolar concentrations of cytochalasins remove stress fibres and other F-actin structures. 

In cell free systems or isolated cells, some enzymes of the arachidonate cascade can also recognize AEA and 2-AG as substrates, thereby producing the corresponding lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase-2 derivatives. However, these metabolites have not yet been isolated from tissues and their biological relevance is still unknown. 

Vesicles lie at the heart of intracellular transport of many proteins. Recently, significant progress has been made in understanding the events involved in vesicle formation and transport. This has transpired because of the use of a number of approaches. These include establishment of cell-free systems with which to study vesicle formation. For instance, it is possible to observe, by electron microscopy, budding of vesicles from Golgi preparations incubated with cytosol and ATP. The development of genetic approaches for studying vesicles in yeast has also been crucial. The piemre is complex, with its own nomenclamre (Table 46-7), and involves a variety of cytosolic and membrane proteins, GTP, ATP, and accessory factors. 

A wheat germ, cell-free, translation extract was fractionated into three concentrated parts using ammonium sulfate the 0 - 40 % saturated fraction, the 40 - 60 % saturated fraction, and the ribosome fraction. These fractions were tested for their ability to enhance the translational activity of the wheat germ, cell-free extract for dihydrofolate reductase. The fortified cell-free system supplemented with the 0 - 40 % ammonium sulfate fraction enhanced the efficiency of protein synthesis by 50 %. 

Cell-free translation system, used for the identification of cloned genes and gene expression, has been investigated extensively as a preparative production system of commercially interesting proteins after the development of continuous-flow cell-free translation system. Many efforts have been devoted to improve the productivity of cell-free system [1], but the relatively low productivity of cell-free translation system still limits its potential as an alternative to the protein production using recombinant cells. One approach to enhance the translational efficiency is to use a condensed cell-free translation extract. However, simple addition of a condensed extract to a continuous-flow cell-free system equipped with an ultrafiltration membrane can cause fouling. Therefore, it needs to be developed a selective condensation of cell-free extract for the improvement of translational efficiency without fouling problem. 

Fig. 1. Reconstruction of the cell-free protein synthesizing system with the partially purified wheat germ extracts. Control normal wheat germ cell-free system, (I) 0 - 40 % ammonium sulfate fraction 3 pi, 40 - 60 % ammonium sulfate fraction 4 pi, and ribosome 3 pi were added to 25 pi reaction mixture, (II) 0-40 % ammonium sulfate fraction 4 pi, 40 - 60 % ammonium sulfate fraction 4 pi, and ribosome 1.5 pi were added to 25 pi reaction mixture.

The catalytic activities of the fortified wheat germ cell-free systems supplemented with each fraction were investigated (Fig. 2). As shown in Fig. 2, only 0 - 40 % ammonium sulfate fraction showed an enhancement in DHFR protein synthesis. This enhancement of protein experimental results and the fact that the various eukaryotic initiation factors are contained in synthesis was also confirmed by SDS-PAGE and autoradiography (Fig. 3). From the above 0-40 % ammonium sulfate fraction [5, 6], it can be concluded that the amount of initiation factors in a conventionally prepared wheat germ cell-fi extract is deficient for the translation of DHFR with internal ribosome entry site. Therefore, it needs to supplement a wheat germ cell-free extract with the fraction containing the limited initiation factors for the efficient protein translation, and this fortified cell-free system can be easily made by simple... 

This prevents further ineorporation of aminoaeyl-tRNA by bloeking the binding of EF-Tu GTP. Like the tetraeyelines, fusidie aeid owes its seleetive antimierobial aetion to active uptake by bacteria and exclusion fiom manunalian cells. The equivalent elongation factor in mammalian cells, EF-2 is susceptible to fusidie acid in cell-free systems. 

S. Shojima, N. Nishizawa, and S. Mori, Establishment of a cell-free system for the biosynthesis of nicotianamine. Plant Cell Physiol. 30 613 (1989). 

Other phosphatases have also been identified and may be implicated in mitotic and meiotic germ cell functions. For example, INH was originally isolated from a Xenopus oocyte cell free system as an inhibitor of pre-MPF activity (Cyert and Kirschner, 1988). INH encodes a protein phosphatase 2Athat negatively regulates MPF activity by dephosphory-lating Cdc2 on thr-161 (Lee et al., 1991 Solomon et al., 1990). 

Kumagai, A., and Dunphy, W. G. (1991). The cdc25 protein controls tyrosine dephosphorylation of the cdc2 protein in a cell-free system. Cell 64 903-914. 

The P-C isomer selectivity seems to be tissue-specific a preferential uptake of the all-trans isomer was shown in hepatic stellate HSC-T6 cells and in cell-free system from rat liver microsomes, but not in endothelial EAHY cells or U937 monocyte-macrophages (During et al., 2002). When Caco-2 cells were incubated with only 9-cis P-C, all -trans P-C did not increase in cells or in the basolateral medium, indicating that there is no cis-trans isomerization occurring in intestinal cells. Thus, the isomerization of 9-cis P-C observed in vivo (You et al., 1996) could take place in the... 

Host system Prokaryotes Eukaryotes Cell- free systems... 

Membrane-integrated proteins were always hard to express in cell-based systems in sufficient quantity for structural analysis. In cell-free systems, they can be produced on a milligrams per milliliter scale, which, combined with labeling with stable isotopes, is also very amenable forNMR spectroscopy [157-161]. Possible applications of in vitro expression systems also include incorporation of selenomethionine (Se-Met) into proteins for multiwavelength anomalous diffraction phasing of protein crystal structures [162], Se-Met-containing proteins are usually toxic for cellular systems [163]. Consequently, rational design of more efficient biocatalysts is facilitated by quick access to structural information about the enzyme. 

Desulfurization using cell-free extracts The first report of desulfurization by cell-free extract of R. erythropolis was by Ohshiro et al. [180], This report showed stoichiometric desulfurization of DBT by a cell-free system and identified NADH as a necessary co-factor for desulfurization. Subsequently, the enzyme activity of cell-free extracts of the strain R. erythropolis D-l was found to be inhibited by a 2-HBP, and its analog 2,2 -dihydroxybiphenyl (DBHP). Sulfate did not inhibit enzyme activity [90], further proving that its role is not in controlling enzyme activity directly but via a genetic repression mechanism as indicated above. 

An enzymatic pathway for indole degradation was found in A. niger, inducible by the substrate within a 5-h period during growth. Among the enzymes found, anthranilate hydroxylase, N-formylanthranilate deformylase, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate decarboxylase, and catechol dioxygenase were isolated, and their activities were demonstrated in a cell-free system [342],... 

Ohshiro, T. Hine, Y., and Izumi, Y., Enzymatic desulfurization of dibenzothiophene by a cell-free system of Rhodococcus erythropoils D-l. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 1994. 118 pp. 341-344. 

Bergamini, G., Preiss, T., and Hentze, M. W. (2000). Picomavirus IRESes and the poly(A) tail ioindy promote cap-independent translation in a mammalian cell-free system. RNA 6, 1781-1790. 

The involvement of several tyrosine kinases in various cancers requires efficient screening methodologies for the inhibitory compounds. Screening is divided into three steps (1) primary screening against the pure isolated PTK in a cell-free system. The objective is always an ELISA format. The compounds are screened against a battery of PTKs and Ser/Ther kinases in order that the pattern of selectivity can be established quickly [2]. 

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