Brassica oleracea lectin: Isolation, characterization, and functional assessment of the first lectin with MATH domains

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Duarte, Christiane Eliza Motta
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Palavras-chave em Português: Lectinas; Proteínas; Brassica oleracea; Biologia Geral
• Link de acesso: http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/9366

Lectins are involved in a wide range of biological mechanisms, including act as immunomodulatory agent able to activate the innate immunity. We purified and characterized a new lectin from cauliflower (Brassica oleracea ssp. botrytis - BOL) by three sequential chromatographic steps and confirmed the purity by SDS-PAGE. Additionally, we evaluated the role of the lectin in innate immunity by a phagocytosis assay, production of H 2 O 2 and NO. BOL was characterized as a non-glycosylated protein with a molecular mass of ~34 kDa in SDS-PAGE. To optimize the process of the lectin obtaining and allow further study of their structure and function, the molecular cloning and heterologous expression of BOL were carried out. Using total RNA extracted from cauliflower seedlings a Bol coding cDNA sequence of 1053 bp was isolated. Bioinformatics tools were used to determine a promoter sequence of 1000 bp of Bol which revealed several key cis-regulatory elements known to be involved in various plant stresses. Comparative expression analysis of tissue specific Bol demonstrated the highest transcript levels in leaves, as compared to stem and root tissues. Analysis of amino acid sequence and alignment with deduced homologous proteins allowed us to determine that the mature protein comprises 301 amino acids. Predicted three-dimensional structure confirmed that this lectin had an overall dome-like structure with two MATH-domains. This is the first report of isolation, cloning and bacterial expression of a lectin with MATH-domains and may be of significant interest to understand the regulatory role of this protein as immunostimulatory agent as well as to the physiology of the plant itself.