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Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society (BKCS)

ISSN 0253-2964(Print)
ISSN 1229-5949(Online)
Volume 34, Number 8
BKCSDE 34(8)
August 20, 2013

Title	Cloning, Over-expression, and Characterization of YjgA, a Novel ppGpp-binding Protein
Author	Gopalsamy Gnanasekaran, SangO Pan, Wontae Jung, Kwangjoon Jeong, Jae-Ho Jeong, Joon Haeng Rhee, Hyon E. Choy, Che-Hun Jung*
Keywords	YjgA, ppGpp, Stringent responses, Stationary phase, Hypothetical protein
Abstract	Guanosine-5'-diphosphate 3'-diphosphate (ppGpp) serves as alarmone in bacterial stringent responses. In this study, an affinity column was constructed by immobilizing ppGpp to NHS-Sepharose for isolating ppGppbinding proteins. A novel ppGpp-binding protein, YjgA, was isolated and characterized by MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry) coupled with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. YjgA and truncated forms of YjgA were cloned and over-expressed in BL21 (DE3). The binding affinity of YjgA to ppGpp was determined by equilibrium dialysis. The interaction of YjgA with ppGpp was very specific, considering that the dissociation constant of YjgA with ppGpp was measured as 5.2 ± 2.0 μM, while the affinities to GTP and GDP were about 60 and 30 times weaker than ppGpp. Expression of yjgA gene in Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 was examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RT-PCR results revealed that yjgA was expressed from early to late stationary phase. The yjgA deletion mutant exhibited decreased cell number at stationary phase compared to parent strain and the overexpression of YjgA increased the cell number. These results suggested that YjgA might stimulate cell division under stationary phase. In most prokaryotic genome, about half of the protein candidates are hypothetical, that are expected to be expressed but there is no experimental report on their functions. The approach utilized in this study may serve as an effective mean to probe the functions of hypothetical proteins.
Page	2419 - 2424
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