1.Mechanisms of ribosomopathy and phase separation-related ribosomopathy.
Zhiyuan PAN ; Guofen LIN ; Hao LIU ; Guozhi LI ; Xiaoyi ZHANG ; Jiewen DAI
Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B 2025;26(6):503-526
Ribosome is an intracellular ribonucleoprotein particle that serves as the site of protein biosynthesis. Ribosomal dysfunction caused by mutations in genes encoding ribosomal proteins (RPs) and ribosome biogenesis factors (RBFs) can lead to a spectrum of diseases, collectively known as ribosomopathy. Phase separation is a thermodynamic process that produces multiple phases from a homogeneous mixture. The formation of membraneless organelles and intracellular structures, including ribosomes and nucleoli, cannot occur without the involvement of phase separation. Here, ribosome structure, biogenesis, and their relationship with ribosomopathy are systematically reviewed. The tissue specificity of ribosomopathy and the role of phase separation in ribosomopathy are particularly discussed, which may offer some clues for understanding the mechanisms of ribosomopathy. Then, some new ideas for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of ribosomopathy are provided.
Humans
;
Ribosomes/physiology*
;
Ribosomal Proteins/metabolism*
;
Mutation
;
Animals
;
Cell Nucleolus/metabolism*
;
Protein Biosynthesis
;
Phase Separation
2.Improvement of neutral protease activity of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LX-6 by combined ribosome engineering and medium optimization and its application in soybean meal fermentation.
Yifan ZHU ; Xinyi HUANG ; Tao HAN ; Jiteng WANG ; Xiaoping YU ; Zheng MA
Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B 2025;26(8):805-812
Soybean meal (SBM) prepared by soybean crushing is the most popular protein source in the poultry and livestock industries (Cai et al., 2015) due to its economic manufacture, high protein content, and good nutritional value. Despite these benefits, SBM contains various antigen proteins such as glycinin and β-conglycinin, which account for approximately 70% of the total proteins of the SBM and reduce digestibility and damage intestinal function (Peng et al., 2018). Treating SBM with proteases (neutrase, alcalase, and trypsin) or fermentation can eliminate these antigen proteins (Contesini et al., 2018). Because of its safety and rapid growth cycle, Bacillus strains are considered ideal for the fermentation industry (Yao et al., 2021). SBM fermented by Bacillus yields products with high nutritional value and low levels of antinutritional factors (ANFs), stimulating research in this area (Yuan et al., 2017). Kumari et al. (2023) demonstrated that fermentation with Bacillus species effectively degrades antigen proteins and increases crude protein content. The degradation of antigen proteins relies on protease hydrolysis. Low protease production is the major obstacle hindering the widespread use of microbial fermentation techniques.
Bacillus amyloliquefaciens/metabolism*
;
Fermentation
;
Glycine max/metabolism*
;
Soybean Proteins/metabolism*
;
Peptide Hydrolases/metabolism*
;
Ribosomes/metabolism*
;
Globulins
;
Antigens, Plant
;
Seed Storage Proteins
3.Expanding molecular diversity of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPP) natural products by radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) enzymes: recent advances and mechanistic insights.
Jiawei FENG ; Jiarong MO ; Xinya HEMU
Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines (English Ed.) 2025;23(3):257-268
Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) constitute a vast and diverse family of bioactive peptides. These peptides, synthesized by ribosomes and subsequently modified by various tailoring enzymes, possess a wide chemical space. Among these modifications, radical S-adenosylmethionine (rSAM) enzymes employ unique radical chemistry to introduce a variety of novel peptide structures, which are crucial for their activity. This review examines the major types of modifications in RiPPs catalyzed by rSAM enzymes, incorporating recent advancements in protein structure analysis techniques and computational methods. Additionally, it elucidates the diverse catalytic mechanisms and substrate selectivity of these enzymes through an analysis of the latest crystal structures.
Protein Processing, Post-Translational
;
S-Adenosylmethionine/chemistry*
;
Ribosomes/metabolism*
;
Peptides/metabolism*
;
Biological Products/metabolism*
;
Humans
4.Functions of nucleolar complex associated 4 homolog in activated T cells.
Jiajun YIN ; Jie GUO ; Jianhua ZHANG
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2024;40(11):4057-4070
Nucleolar complex associated 4 homolog (NOC4L) is a key factor in ribosome biogenesis, and this study aims to investigate its roles in activated T cells from the perspective of translation regulation. Firstly, flow cytometry was employed to determine the expression levels of NOC4L in the CD4+ T cells under different conditions in the transgenic reporter mice expressing Noc4lmCherry. Subsequently, the expression of NOC4L along with cell proliferation was examined under Th1 and Th17 polarization conditions. Finally, in vitro experiments were conducted to identify the proteins interacting with NOC4L during the activation of Th1 and Th17 cells, on the basis of which the potential mechanisms of NOC4L were explored. The results showed that the expression level of NOC4L increased in activated CD4+ T cells, and the expression of NOC4L was closely associated with the proliferation and division of activated T cells. The in vitro experiments revealed interactions between NOC4L and proteins involved in ribosome assembly and cell proliferation during T cell activation. These findings lay a foundation for probing into the post-transcriptional regulation in helper T cells and hold profound significance for understanding the activation and regulatory mechanisms of T cells.
Animals
;
Mice
;
Lymphocyte Activation
;
Cell Proliferation
;
Mice, Transgenic
;
Nuclear Proteins/genetics*
;
Th1 Cells/immunology*
;
Th17 Cells/metabolism*
;
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes/immunology*
;
Ribosomes/metabolism*
5.Development and application of ribosomal engineering in actinomycetes.
Yunchang XIE ; Shijie YAO ; Wei LI ; Runrun SHAN ; Guigui WU ; Tuqiang TONG ; Qi CHEN
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2022;38(2):546-564
Ribosomal engineering is a technique that can improve the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in the antibiotics-resistant mutants by attacking the bacterial RNA polymerase or ribosome units using the corresponding antibiotics. Ribosomal engineering can be used to discover and increase the production of valuable bioactive secondary metabolites from almost all actinomycetes strains regardless of their genetic accessibility. As a consequence, ribosomal engineering has been widely applied to genome mining and production optimization of secondary metabolites in actinomycetes. To date, more than a dozen of new molecules were discovered and production of approximately 30 secondary metabolites were enhanced using actinomycetes mutant strains generated by ribosomal engineering. This review summarized the mechanism, development, and protocol of ribosomal engineering, highlighting the application of ribosomal engineering in actinomycetes, with the aim to facilitate future development of ribosomal engineering and discovery of actinomycetes secondary metabolites.
Actinobacteria/metabolism*
;
Actinomyces/genetics*
;
Anti-Bacterial Agents/metabolism*
;
Multigene Family
;
Ribosomes/genetics*
6.Knockout of ribosomal genes bS22 and bL37 increases the sensitivity of mycobacteria to antibiotics.
Chan SHAN ; Qianwen YUE ; Xiaoming DING
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2022;38(3):1061-1073
In recent years, two novel proteins in the ribosomes of mycobacteria have been discovered by cryo-electron microscopy. The protein bS22 is located near the decoding center of the 30S subunit, and the protein bL37 is located near the peptidyl transferase center of the 50S subunit. Since these two proteins bind to conserved regions of the ribosome targeted by antibiotics, it is speculated that they might affect the binding of related drugs to these targets. Therefore, we knocked out the genes encoding these two proteins in wild-type Mycolicibacterium smegmatis mc2155 through homologous recombination, and then determined the growth curves of these mutants and their sensitivity to related antibiotics. The results showed that compared with the wild-type strain, the growth rate of these two mutants did not change significantly. However, mutant ΔbS22 showed increased sensitivity to capreomycin, kanamycin, amikacin, streptomycin, gentamicin, paromomycin, and hygromycin B, while mutant ΔbL37 showed increased sensitivity to linezolid. These changes in antibiotics sensitivity were restored by gene complementation. This study hints at the possibility of using ribosomal proteins bS22 and bL37 as targets for drug design.
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology*
;
Cryoelectron Microscopy
;
Mycobacterium/genetics*
;
Ribosomal Proteins/genetics*
;
Ribosomes/metabolism*
7.Effect of ribosome engineering on butenyl-spinosyns synthesis of Saccharopolyspora pogona.
Lin'gen LUO ; Yan YANG ; Hui WEI ; Jie RANG ; Qiong TANG ; Shengbiao HU ; Yunjun SUN ; Ziquan YU ; Xuezhi DING ; Liqiu XIA
Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2016;32(2):259-263
Through introducing mutations into ribosomes by obtaining spontaneous drug resistance of microorganisms, ribosome engineering technology is an effective approach to develop mutant strains that overproduce secondary metabolites. In this study, ribosome engineering was used to improve the yield of butenyl-spinosyns produced by Saccharopolyspora pogona by screening streptomycin resistant mutants. The yields of butenyl-spinosyns were then analyzed and compared with the parent strain. Among the mutants, S13 displayed the greatest increase in the yield of butenyl-spinosyns, which was 1.79 fold higher than that in the parent strain. Further analysis of the metabolite profile of S13 by mass spectrometry lead to the discovery of Spinosyn α1, which was absent from the parent strain. DNA sequencing showed that there existed two point mutations in the conserved regions of rpsL gene which encodes ribosomal protein S12 in S13. The mutations occurred a C to A and a C to T transversion mutations occurred at nucleotide pair 314 and 320 respectively, which resulted in the mutations of Proline (105) to Gultamine and Alanine (107) to Valine. It also demonstrated that S13 exhibited genetic stability even after five passages.
Genetic Engineering
;
Macrolides
;
metabolism
;
Point Mutation
;
Ribosomal Proteins
;
genetics
;
Ribosomes
;
metabolism
;
Saccharopolyspora
;
metabolism
8.Effect of curcumin on aged Drosophila melanogaster: a pathway prediction analysis.
Zhi-guo ZHANG ; Xu-yan NIU ; Ai-ping LU ; Gary Guishan XIAO
Chinese journal of integrative medicine 2015;21(2):115-122
OBJECTIVETo re-analyze the data published in order to explore plausible biological pathways that can be used to explain the anti-aging effect of curcumin.
METHODSMicroarray data generated from other study aiming to investigate effect of curcumin on extending lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster were further used for pathway prediction analysis. The differentially expressed genes were identified by using GeneSpring GX with a criterion of 3.0-fold change. Two Cytoscape plugins including BisoGenet and molecular complex detection (MCODE) were used to establish the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network based upon differential genes in order to detect highly connected regions. The function annotation clustering tool of Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) was used for pathway analysis.
RESULTSA total of 87 genes expressed differentially in D. melanogaster melanogaster treated with curcumin were identified, among which 50 were up-regulated significantly and 37 were remarkably down-regulated in D. melanogaster melanogaster treated with curcumin. Based upon these differential genes, PPI network was constructed with 1,082 nodes and 2,412 edges. Five highly connected regions in PPI networks were detected by MCODE algorithm, suggesting anti-aging effect of curcumin may be underlined through five different pathways including Notch signaling pathway, basal transcription factors, cell cycle regulation, ribosome, Wnt signaling pathway, and p53 pathway.
CONCLUSIONGenes and their associated pathways in D. melanogaster melanogaster treated with anti-aging agent curcumin were identified using PPI network and MCODE algorithm, suggesting that curcumin may be developed as an alternative therapeutic medicine for treating aging-associated diseases.
Aging ; drug effects ; genetics ; Animals ; Cell Cycle ; drug effects ; genetics ; Curcumin ; pharmacology ; Drosophila Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Drosophila melanogaster ; drug effects ; genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation ; drug effects ; Gene Regulatory Networks ; drug effects ; Genes, Insect ; Protein Biosynthesis ; drug effects ; genetics ; Protein Interaction Maps ; drug effects ; genetics ; Receptors, Notch ; genetics ; metabolism ; Ribosomes ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects ; genetics ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 ; metabolism ; Wnt Signaling Pathway ; drug effects ; genetics
9.Construction and expression of bisbicistronic expression vector of novel endocrine and exocrine protein gene associated with breast cancer and IRES mediated gene EGFP.
Huamei YAN ; Yanping WANG ; Yu WANG ; Zhu WANG ; Hong ZHENG
Journal of Biomedical Engineering 2012;29(4):737-744
This experimental study was aimed to construct the recombinant bisbicistronic eukaryotic expression vector containing endocrine and exocrine protein (EECP) gene associated with breast cancer and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene. And then we transfected it into breast cancer cells MCF-7 to detect the expression of EECP protein and study preliminary biological function of EECP gene. The EECP sequence was cloned to pBluescript II SK (+) plasmid. After restriction endonuclease reaction of pBluescript II SK(+) plasmid, the EECP fragment was cloned to pIRES2-EGFP vector forming a recombinant eukaryotic expression vector named pEECP-IRES2-EGFP. The potential vector was identified by restriction endonuclease digestion and sequencing. Correct plasmid was extracted and transfected into breast cancer cells MCF-7. The expression of EECP protein was detected by western blot analysis. Its biological function was studied by MTT and Flow-cytometry. It turns out that the recombinant eukaryotic expression vector containing EECP gene and EGFP gene was constructed successfully, and it could transfect MCF-7 cells efficiently. It can get higher expression of EECP protein and higher cell proliferation, thus providing an important and convenient tool for studying the function of EECP gene in vitro and in vivo.
Base Sequence
;
Breast Neoplasms
;
genetics
;
pathology
;
Female
;
Genetic Vectors
;
genetics
;
Green Fluorescent Proteins
;
biosynthesis
;
genetics
;
Humans
;
MCF-7 Cells
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Proteins
;
analysis
;
genetics
;
metabolism
;
Recombinant Fusion Proteins
;
biosynthesis
;
genetics
;
Ribosomes
;
chemistry
;
metabolism
10.Ribosome display screening of a novel human anti-IgE scFv fragment.
Yong-xia ZHANG ; Bao-cheng WANG ; Xin YU ; Yun-jian DAI ; Yong-zhi HE ; Cong CONG ; Yong XIA ; Ming-rong WANG
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica 2012;47(10):1329-1335
Total mRNA was extracted from lymphocytes separated from the peripheral blood of allergic patients, and then variable region of heavy chain (VH) and variable region of light chain (VL) cDNA library were constructed by RT-PCR. Human scFv templates for rabbit reticulocyte lysate ribosome display were assembled by primers and linker peptide (Gly4Ser)3. mRNA bound in antibody-ribosome-mRNA complexes was recovered using in-situ single primer RT-PCR, and three rounds of anti-IgE scFv DNA were enriched. The target DNA fragments were double enzyme digested and ligated into plasmid pET22b (+), followed by transformation in E. coli Rosseta (DE3). Positive clones were screened using clone PCR, Dot blotting and antigen ELISA. The correct lengths of VH (400 bp) and VL (710 bp) PCR products were obtained. The expected 1,000 bp ribosome display templates were also observed in agarose gel electrophoresis. After three rounds of ribosome display target sequences were effectively enriched, leading to a library of 10(13) members. Antibodies with the highest ELISA value for IgE were generated in the strain pET-IgE-6. A human anti-IgE scFv library was successfully constructed as described herein. Ribosome display using single primer in-situ RT-PCR as the recovery procedure effectively enriched target sequences. Anti-IgE scFv with high affinity and specificity were identified. The prepared human anti-IgE scFv fragment might be self-developed to a lead drug for treating asthma. Our study provides an alternative method for rapid discovery of human antibodies of therapeutic importance.
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic
;
genetics
;
isolation & purification
;
Antibody Affinity
;
Asthma
;
blood
;
Base Sequence
;
DNA, Complementary
;
metabolism
;
Escherichia coli
;
metabolism
;
Humans
;
Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains
;
genetics
;
Immunoglobulin Light Chains
;
genetics
;
Immunoglobulin Variable Region
;
genetics
;
Lymphocytes
;
chemistry
;
Peptide Library
;
RNA, Messenger
;
isolation & purification
;
Recombination, Genetic
;
genetics
;
Ribosomes
;
chemistry
;
genetics
;
immunology
;
Single-Chain Antibodies
;
genetics
;
isolation & purification
;
Transformation, Genetic

Result Analysis
Print
Save
E-mail