title: Expression, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of C-reactive protein from zebrafish.
abstract: C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute phase protein that is found in blood, the concentration of which in plasma rises rapidly in response to inflammation. It functions as a pattern-recognition molecule, recognizing dead cells and various pathogenic agents and eliminating them by utilizing the classical complement pathway and activating macrophages. CRP is phylogenetically highly conserved in invertebrates and mammals. To date, information on the CRP gene has been reported from numerous species of animals, but little is known about the structure of CRP from species other than humans. In order to solve the structure of CRP from bony fish, the CRP gene from zebrafiah (Danio rerio) was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The zebrafish CRP (Dare-CRP) was then purified and crystallized. The crystal diffracted to 2.3 Å resolution and belonged to space group R3, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 114.7, c = 61.0 Å. The Matthews coefficient and solvent content were calculated to be 3.28 Å(3) Da(-1) and 62.55%, respectively. Determination of the zebrafish CRP structure should be helpful in investigating the evolution of CRPs in the innate immune system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jianxun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Shugang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Xiaocheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003460:Crystallization; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D002097:C-Reactive Protein