title: Localization of the estrogen-binding site of alpha-fetoprotein in the chimeric human-rat proteins.
abstract: Rat alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) has been demonstrated to bind estrogen, whereas human AFP lacks the activity. We constructed four chimeric molecules from cDNAs encoding these AFPs with the use of two restriction sites common to them and expressed them as well as rat and human AFP cDNA in yeast. The recombinant molecules were purified, characterized, and found to have the predicted structures. Analyses of estrogen binding indicated that a rat AFP sequence composed of residues 423-506 that contains 31 rat-specific amino acids is essential for the activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsue
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yamaoto
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakai
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004958:Estradiol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D005779:Immunodiffusion; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D051381:Rats; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins; D004958:Estradiol