BARC/PUB/2016/1311

 
 

Characterization of a DUF820 family protein Alr3200 of the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC7120

 
     
 
Author(s)

Raghavan, P. S.; Gupta, G. D.; Rajaram, H.; Vinay Kumar
(MBD)

Source

Journal of Biosciences, 2016. Vol. 41 (4): pp. 589-600

ABSTRACT

The hypothetical protein ‘Alr3200’ of Anabaena sp. strain PCC7120 is highly conserved among cyanobacterial species. It is a member of the DUF820 (Domain of Unknown Function) protein family, and is predicted to have a DNase domain. Biochemical analysis revealed a Mg(II)-dependent DNase activity for Alr3200 with a specific activity of 8.62×104 Kunitz Units (KU) mg−1 protein. Circular dichroism analysis predicted Alr3200 to have ~40% β-strands and ~9% α-helical structures. Anabaena PCC7120 inherently expressed Alr3200 at very low levels, and its overexpression had no significant effect on growth of Anabaena under control conditions. However, Analr3200+, the recombinant Anabaena strain overexpressing Alr3200, exhibited zero survival upon exposure to 6 kGy of γ-radiation, which is the LD50 for wild type Anabaena PCC7120 as well as the vector control recombinant strain, AnpAM. Comparative analysis of the two recombinant Anabaena strains suggested that it is not the accumulated Alr3200 per se, but its possible interactions with the radiation-induced unidentified DNA repair proteins of Anabaena, which hampers DNA repair resulting in radiosensitivity.

 
 
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