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Plant Physiology Preview Published on February 27, 2008; 10.1104/pp.107.111500
Received October 25, 2007 Proteinase Inhibitor from Ginkgo Seeds Is a Member of Plant Nonspecific Lipid Transfer Protein Gene Family
Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan; Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Gunma University, 1-5-1 Tenjin-cho, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515, Japan * Corresponding author; email: hatano{at}chem-bio.gunma-u.ac.jp.
A 9-kDa proteinase inhibitor was isolated from the seeds of Ginkgo biloba and purified to homogeneity. This protein was revealed to partial-noncompetitively inhibit the aspartic-acid proteinase pepsin and the cysteine proteinase papain (Ki = 10-5–10-4 M). The cDNA of the inhibitor was revealed to contain a 357-bp open reading frame encoding a 119-amino acid protein with a potential signal peptide (27 residues), indicating that this protein is synthesized as a preprotein and secreted outside the cells. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR revealed that this gene expresses only in seeds, not in stems, leaves, and roots, suggesting that the protein is involved in seed development and/or germination. The inhibitor showed about 40% sequence homology with type-I nonspecific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTP1s) from other plant species. Actually, this inhibitor exerted both lipid transfer activity and lipid binding activity, while the protein did not show any antifungal and antibacterial activities. Furthermore, the site-directed mutagenesis study using a recombinant ginkgo nsLTP1 revealed that Pro79 and Phe80 are important on phospholipid transfer activity and that Pro79 and Ile82 are essential for the binding activity towards cis-unsaturated fatty acids. On the other hand, the
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