BACKGROUNDNowadays it is now a focus topic in schistosomiasis research to find ideal vaccine candidates and new drug targets for developing anti-schistosomiasis vaccine. We cloned a new gene, casein kinase II beta subunit, of Schistosoma japonicum (S. japonicum) and express it in Escherichia coli (E. coli).

METHODSThe ESTs obtained in our laboratory were analyzed by homologous searching, and a new gene was recognized. The full-length cDNA of the new gene was obtained by joining the 3'RACE PCR fragment and the EST clone. To express the new gene, the cDNA was cloned into pGEX-4T-1 vector and then transformed into E. coli JM109. The recombinant protein was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western-blot.

RESULTSA 908 bp cDNA was isolated from S. japonicum and identified to be casein kinase II beta subunit gene by sequence analysis. The open reading frame of the gene encodes a protein of 217 amino acids exhibiting 75.8%, 75.8%, 73.9%, 68.2%, 51.6% identity to the amino acids sequence of the corresponding genes of Homo sapiens (H. sapiens), Xenopus laevi (X. laevi), Drosophila melanogaster (D. melanogaster), Caenorhabditis elegan (C. elegan), and Schizosaccharomyces pombe (S. promber) respectively. The predicted molecular weight of the protein was 24.921 kDa. The new cDNA sequence had been submitted to GenBank, and its accession number is AY241391. This cDNA was subcloned into the pGEX-4T-1 vector and expressed in E. coli JM109. The recombinant protein could be recognized by the S. japonicum infected rabbit serum.

CONCLUSIONThe full-length cDNA sequences encoding S. japonicum casein kinase II beta subunit were firstly sequenced, cloned, and expressed in E. coli.