Conversion of Bfl‐1, an anti‐apoptotic Bcl‐2 family protein, to a potent pro‐apoptotic protein by fusion with green fluorescent protein (GFP)

FEBS Letters

Kim, Hee-Jung¹  Ko, Jae-Kyun¹  Yeo, Dong-Jun¹  Yang, Wan Seok¹  Kim, Yong-Nyun¹  Choi, Hye-Young¹  Kim, Chul-Woo¹  Choi, Kyoung-Han¹  Park, Sue-O¹ 

[1] Department of Pathology, Tumor Immunity Medical Research Center, Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yongon-dong, Chongno-gu, Seoul 110-799, South Korea

关键词: Bfl-1;    Apoptosis;    Green fluorescent protein;    Bcl-2 family;    GFP;    green fluorescence protein;    BH;    Bcl-2 homology;    z-VAD-fmk;    carbobenzoxy-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethyl ketone;    TM;    transmembrane;   

DOI  :  10.1016/S0014-5793(03)00872-X

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

Human Bfl-1 is an anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member. Here, we found that Bfl-1 was converted into a potent death-promoting protein by green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion with its N-terminus. The transient expression of GFP-Bfl-1 induced cytochrome c release and triggered apoptosis in 293T cells, which depended on the mitochondrial localization of GFP-Bfl-1. Apoptosis induced by GFP-Bfl-1 was significantly blocked by the pan-caspase inhibitor carbobenzoxy-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethyl ketone, but was not blocked by either Bcl-xL or Bfl-1. Our findings provide a useful model for understanding the structural basis of Bcl-2 family proteins that act in an opposite way despite sharing structural similarity between anti-apoptotic and pro-apoptotic proteins.

【 授权许可】

Unknown