Phage libraries screening on P53: Yield improvement by zinc and a new parasites-integrating analysis.

P53 is a transcription factor that controls a variety of genes, primarily involved in cell cycle and other processes related to cell survival and death. We have isolated peptides targeting P53 (protein and domains) using the "phage display" technique. Interestingly, adding ZnCl2 at 5-10 mM in panning solutions helped to recover more plaque-forming units at least at round one of the screening.

Cloning and heterologous expression of a thermostable pectate lyase from Penicillium occitanis in Escherichia coli.

The entire pectate lyase cDNA (Pel1) of Penicillium occitanis was cloned from a cDNA bank and sequenced. The ORF exhibited a great homology to Penicillium marneffei and conservation of all features of fungal pectate lyases such as the barrel structure with "eight right-handed parallel β-helix" architecture. The structure modeling also showed the interesting resemblance with thermostable pectate lyases since several specific residues were also shared by Pel1 and these thermostable enzymes.

Selection of cell death-deficient p53 mutants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a useful system for the detection and transcriptional evaluation of mutant p53 in cancer. In previous work we showed that the overexpression of wild-type p53 induces yeast cell death on minimal medium; however, the R248W p53 mutant was completely inactive, and we suggested that ROS production is a key event in p53-induced yeast cell death. In this study we explored the effect of other p53 mutants, such as the hot-spot mutant R282W and the double mutant N268S::I332V.

Human p53 induces cell death and downregulates thioredoxin expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The p53 tumour suppressor protein has a crucial role in controlling cell cycle and apoptosis in human cells and its inactivation by selective point mutations is associated with human cancers. Here we show that overexpression of the human wild-type (wt) p53 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae completely inhibits yeast growth under minimal media conditions. In contrast, the R248W 'hot spot' p53 mutant (one of the most frequent p53 mutations encountered in human cancers) does not impair yeast growth.