title: A novel importin alpha from rice, a component involved in the process of nuclear protein transport.
abstract: In eukaryotes, nuclear proteins that are transported into nuclei have nuclear localization signals (NLSs), which are recognized by proteins called importin alpha. We isolated a rice cDNA, #61L, and the corresponding gene that encodes a protein, which shows significant homology to the importin alpha. Although the encoded protein had only 23-27% amino acid identity to the importin alphas from various organisms including plants, the fusion protein with glutathione S-transferase showed a specific binding activity to the NLS of SV40 T-antigen. These results suggest that the rice #61L protein is a novel importin alpha in plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Niigata University, Ikarashi, Japan. tiwasaki@sc.niigata-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iwasaki
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Matsuki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shoji
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sanmiya
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyao
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000957:Antigens, Viral, Tumor / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000378:metabolism; D001665:Binding Sites; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000502:physiology; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000096:biosynthesis; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000378:metabolism; D014981:Xenopus; D028901:alpha Karyopherins
chemical_list: D000957:Antigens, Viral, Tumor; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D028901:alpha Karyopherins; D005982:Glutathione Transferase