PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

E Przibilla

Publications and source records attributed to E Przibilla.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Site-specific mutagenesis of the D1 subunit of photosystem II in wild-type Chlamydomonas.

The structure and functional mode of photosystem II reaction center protein D1 can be studied by analyzing the effects of amino acid substitutions within the binding niche for QB, the second stable electron acceptor of photosystem II, on herbicide binding. Here we report on site-directed mutagenesis of the psbA gene coding for the D1 protein in the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The chloroplasts of wild-type cells were transformed using the particle gun. The plasmids introduced carried an in vitro mutated fragment of the psbA gene. We obtained a double mutant with replacements of amino acids 264 and 266 and a triple mutant having an additional substitution in position 259. The sensitivities of both mutants toward several types of herbicides are given and compared with those of a mutant having only a substitution at position 264.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Yeast activators stimulate plant gene expression.

GAL4 is a transcriptional activator found in yeast. Two distinct functions of the protein are required for its activity: one directs sequence-specific DNA binding, and another interacts with some other component of the transcriptional machinery, for example, RNA polymerase II or a TATA-binding protein. Two short regions of GAL4 function as 'activating sequences' when attached to the DNA-binding portion of GAL4 and these regions can be replaced by a large number of peptides encoded by Escherichia coli genomic DNA fragments or by a synthetic peptide designed to form an amphiphilic alpha-helix. All of these activating sequences, like that found in another yeast activator, GCN4 bear an excess negative charge. GAL4 and its derivatives that are active in yeast stimulate transcription in mammalian cells when GAL4 binding sites are introduced upstream of a mammalian gene; similarly, GAL4 activates transcription in Drosophila cells. Here we show that GAL4 derivatives stimulate gene expression in plant cells.

Acetyltransferases↗