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XB-IMG-133538

Xenbase Image ID: 133538


Fig. 1. Autoproteolytic cleavage of Xenopus hh proteins in vitro and in embryos. (A) Percentage of amino acid identity between the predicted N and C domains of the Xenopus hh gene family members (Ekker et al., 1995). (B) Depiction of constructs encoding full-length X-bhh, N, DN-C, and UHA. The polypeptides predicted to be formed in vivo after translation and cleavage of the signal sequence, and the autoproteolytic cleavage of the full-length polypeptide, are shown to the right, and are described in Materials and methods. SS denotes the signal sequence, U refers to the unprocessed polypeptide after cleavage of the signal sequence, N depicts the amino-terminal region after signal sequence cleavage and after autoproteolysis (at the site indicated by the downward arrowhead), and C denotes the carboxyterminal domain after autoproteolysis. The filled box in C denotes a histidine at position 270, and the box with a check denotes mutation of histidine 270 to an alanine. (C) Processing of X-bhh (lane 1), Xshh (lane 2), and X-chh (lane 3) upon translation in vitro. Each lane contains three hh-associated protein products (indicated by arrowheads), of which the two smaller products arise by autoproteolytic cleavage of the larger unprocessed form (see text and D below). The two X-bhh cleavage products are of similar size, and appear as a doublet in lane 1 (see D below). (D) Detailed analysis of X-bhh processing in vitro. The X-bhh open reading frame was mutated to yield UHA, N, and DN-C constructs as diagrammed in B. Cartoons clarifying the region of X-bhh present in the translation product are shown to the left of lane 4. Lanes 4 and 8: translation of wild-type X-bhh. Lane 5: translation of UHA. Lane 6: translation of N. The protein product comigrates with a fragment generated by autoproteolysis of X-bhh (compare lane 6 with lanes 4 and 8). Lane 7: translation of DN-C whose primary translation product undergoes autoproteolysis (refer to cartoon). The lower of the two bands within the doublet comigrates with a fragment generated by autoproteolysis of X-bhh (compare lanes 7 and 8 with reference to the cartoon), and the band migrating near the 6´103 Mr marker is the small N-terminal fragment remaining after autoproteolysis (refer to cartoon). (E) Processing of X-bhh in embryos. X-bhh or UHA were co-injected with [35S]methionine into embryos and the resulting extracts were immunoprecipitated with an antibody to the carboxy region of X-bhh (see Materials and methods). The upper gel is useful solely for showing the presence of full-length X-bhh denoted by an arrowhead. The lower gel was overexposed to resolve lower molecular mass species arising by processing of X-bhh. Lane 9 (both gels): proteins generated from in vitro translation of DN-C. Lane 10 (both gels): in vitro translation of X-bhh. Lane 11 (both gels): Immunoprecipitation of embryo extracts with a C-terminal antibody after injection of UHA demonstrates the presence of full-length X-bhh polypeptide (arrowhead, upper gel), but no bands co-migrating with C-terminal polypeptides (lower gel). Lane 12 (both gels): Immunoprecipitation of embryo extracts after injection of X-bhh RNA demonstrates the presence of full length X-bhh in the upper gel. In lane 12 of the lower gel, two lower molecular mass bands (arrowheads) are noted, which are absent from the UHA-injected embryos (lane 11), and absent from uninjected embryos (not shown). The lower of these two bands comigrates with C generated by in vitro translation of X-bhh (lane 10) or DN-C (lane 9). The approximately 30´103 Mr band in lane 12 (arrowhead) is presumed to be a modification of the C protein, possibly glycosylation at a predicted N-linked glycosylation site (Ekker et al., 1995). Unmarked bands are not hh-derived as determined by immunoprecipitation of labeled embryos not injected with X-bhh RNAs (not shown).

Image published in: Lai CJ et al. (1995)

Copyright © 1995. Image reproduced with permission of the publisher and the copyright holder. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

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