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Potassium antimonite was used to deposit calcium in the young ovule of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) at megasporogenesis stage to study the relationship between calcium and megaspore degeneration. At the megaspore mother cell stage, few calcium granules were formed in the cell (Plate I-1, 2). After meiosis of megaspore mother cell and forming an arrayed tetrad in a line (Plate I-3), three megaspores degenerated one by one from the micropyle end. In the process of degeneration, the numbers of calcium granules decreased in the three megaspores. After the first megaspore degenerated, the number of calcium granules decreased in the second megaspore, which began to degenerate (Plate II-7, 8). The third megaspore also had its number of calcium granules diminishing before it degenerated (Plate III-13, 14). The fourth megaspore always accumulated many calcium granules in the cytoplasm during its development (Plate IV-17, 18) and finally becomes functional one that will develop into an embryo sac (Plate IV-20). Megaspore degeneration is a process of programmed cell death which may be closely related with change in calcium content: when a megaspore of tetrad decreases calcium content the cell begins to degenerate, and when calcium increases in the cell, it will continue to develop into a functional megaspore. This is the first report about calcium distribution in megaspores of a tetrad during megasporogenesis in higher plants and will open a door to study the physiological function of calcium in megasporogenesis.

The full length cDNA of SARS coronavirus nucleocapsid (N) protein was amplified by PCR and cloned into yeast expression vector pPIC3.5K to generate expression vector pPIC3.5K-SCoVN. The plasmid was linearized and then transformed into P. pastoris (His- Mut+) by electroporation method. His+ Mut+ recombinant strains were screened on G418-RDB and MM/MD plates, and further confirmed by PCR. The influence of various inducing media, dissolved oxygen(DO) and the different final concentration of methanol was subsequently investigated. The results showed that the FBS medium was optimal for recombinant N protein expression and growth of the recombinant strain. The optimal final concentration of methanol is 1% (V/V), and the DO has a significant effect on recombinant N protein expression and growth of recombinant strain. The recombinant N protein expressed was about 6% of the total cell proteins, 410 mg/L of recombinant N protein and 45 OD600 were achieved in shake flask. Western-blot showed that the recombinant N protein had high specificity against mouse-anti-N protein-mAb and SARS positive sera, but had no cross-reaction with normal human sera. The result of scale-up culture in fermemtator demonstrated that 2.5g/L of recombinant N protein and the maximum cell 345 OD600 of were achieved, which was 6.1 times and 7.7 times higher than that in shake flask. So this study provide a basis for further researches on the early diagnosis of SARS and the virus reproduction and pathology reaction of SARS coronavirus.

Production of Hepatitis E Virus capsid protein by high cell density culture in recombinant E. coli has been studied in 10L and 30L fermentors. The effects of different factors on growth and producing recombinant protein of E. coli have been studied by batch culture, such as different media, the ratio of phosphate and Magnesium sulfate. Comparison of fermentation performance for recombinant E. coli in different fed-methods culture has been investigated by fed-batch culture. The effects of inducing at different stages of growth and time of inducing on growth and producing recombinant protein, also obtained by fed-batch culture. At last, the solubility of inclusion body in different urea concentrations also has been obtained by fed-batch culture. The results show that the concentration of phosphate and Magnesium sulfate in the optimal media is 80mmol/L and 20mmol/L in batch culture respectively, that induction with 1.0mmol/L IPTG at mid log phase (about 45 OD at 600nm) is suitable for growth and recombinant protein expression, the cells were approaching stationary growth phase and the maximum cell OD at 600nm of 80 was achieved in 5h of fed-batch culture, and the expression level is 29.74%. The results also indicate that the solubility of inclusion body in 4mol/L urea solution induced at 37 degrees C reaches 14mg/mL, over 80% inclusion body was resolved. The culture process achieved in 10L fermentor could be successfully scaled up to 30L fenmentor with good reproducibility.

An E. coli expressed recombinant antigen NE2 was reported to aggregate into homo-oligomer, and can induce protective antibodies on rhesus monkey, but its immunogenicty was much weak after being purified. In this study, three N-terminal extension mutant of NE2 were expressed in E. coli, one of which named HEV 239 was found to aggregate into particle. HEV 239 antigen had good reactivity with sera of hepatitis E patients. The reactivity of HEV 239 against neutralization monoclonal antibody 8C11 was similar as NE2 antigen, while the reactivity of it against another neutralization monoclonal antibody 8H3 is much better than NE2 antigen, which indicated better antigenicity of HEV 239 than NE2. The diameter of purified HEV 239 particulate antigen was between 15 nm to 30 nm. The ED50 of immunization of HEV 239 particle adsorbed by aluminum adjuvant to BALB/c mice was between 0.08 microg to 0.25 microg. In contrast, the seraconversion rate of mice immunized by NE2 antigen adsorbed by aluminium adjuvant was only 25% on 60 microg vaccination. These results suggested that HEV 239 antigen particle has better immunogenicity as well as antigenicity than those of NE2 antigen, so it is a better vaccine candidate against HEV.

Hepatitis E is a main cause of acute viral hepatitis in developing countries where it occurs as sporadic cases and in epidemics form. The causative agent, hepatitis E virus, is transmitted primarily by the fecal-oral route. The approximately 7.5 kb positive-sense single-strand RNA genome includes three open reading frames (ORFs), one of which (ORF2) is postulated to encode the major viral capsid protein (pORF2) of 660 amino acid residues. We earlier showed that a bacterially expressed peptide, designated as NE2, located from amino acid residues 394 to 606 of ORF2, was found to aggregate into homodimer to at least hexamer. To understand the interface domains within this peptide vital for dimerization and formation of major neutralizing epitopes, NE2 protein underwent terminal-truncated and site-directed mutation. The hydrophobic region, ORF2 aa597-aa602 (AVAVLA), played a key role in oligomerization. Any amino acid residue of this region replaced with glutamic acid residue, the peptide can not refold as homodimer and/or oligomer. The immunoreactivities of these mutant peptides, blotted with anti-HEV neutralizing monoclonal antibody (8C11) and convalescent human sera, show associated to the formation of homodimer. The intermolecular contact region on homodimer was investigated by chemical cross-linking of two site-directed cysteines. When the alanine on aa597 site mutated with cysteine, two different homodimers were found in SDS-PAGE analysis. One (42kD) can be disassociated with 8mol/L urea, which is postulated to form by virtue of hydrophobic interaction, and the other (60kD) falls apart with the reductant DTT present. The exact conformation, generating the cross-linking reaction of cysteines, was further investigated by induced-oxidation on monomer and hydrophobic homodimer of A597C protein with GSH/GSSG. And the results revealed, it is the conformation of hydrophobic homodimer that induces the disulfide bond come into being, instead of the one of monomer. So the aa597 site was verified to be located on interface domain of hydrophobically interacting homodimeric complex. To evaluate the biological significance of hydrophobicity of interface domain, we searched natural variations as to the region on all available databases with NCBI blast program. All variations on these amino acid residues kept higher hydrophobicity, which suggests that the hydrophobic domain is critical for the assemblage and propagation of HEV. NE2 N-terminal deletions up to aa458 had no effect on dimerization and took no exact part in formation of major neutralizing epitopes, but the fragment may act as helper for the formation of major neutralizing epitopes on NE2. Interestingly, the C-terminus aa605-aa660 of ORF2 can also act as helper instead of the N-terminus of NE2. This study suggests an interface domain of NE2 might be vital for HEV capsomer assembly and formation of major neutralizing epitopes. These results may offer clues to the rational design of recombinant anti-HEV vaccine.

A fragment of hepatitis E virus open reading frame-2(ORF2), located from amino acid residues 394 to 604, was expressed in E. coli. The recombinant protein NE2 was found to form homodimer mostly in SDS-PAGE, which can be dissociated to monomers when treated with urea, and it was recognized more strongly in its dimeric form than the monomer by HEV reactive human serum in Western blotting. Besides, many aggregated form of NE2 from dimer to at least hexamer can be seen in MALDI-TOF-MS. And when the hydrated dynamic semidiameter of NE2 moleculars in PBS was measured as about 4 nm by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), being equal to tetramer, but with high polydispersity, which suggested that the NE2 moleculars were existed in PBS in many different sizes. These results suggested that the recombinant NE2 can aggregate into several oligomer forms, the association in the dimer is most strong, and dimers can assemble further to form some super-structure.