Open AccessMPS1: a small, evolutionarily conserved zinc finger protein from the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii
Author(s) -
Mattsson Jens G,
Soldati Dominique
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1999.tb08801.x
Subject(s) - biology , toxoplasma gondii , zinc finger , complementary dna , northern blot , microbiology and biotechnology , messenger rna , expressed sequence tag , western blot , genetics , ribosomal protein , ribosomal rna , sequence analysis , gene , ribosome , rna , antibody , transcription factor
Within the expressed sequence tag (EST) dataset of Toxoplasma gondii we have identified several ESTs encoding a protein similar to the small zinc finger protein MPS1. In human it is suggested that MPS1 plays a role as a transcriptional mediator in response to various growth factors and it is used as a tumour marker in sera from cancer patients. However, in rat a cDNA sequence homologous to MPS1 encodes ribosomal protein S27. To further characterise MPS1 in T. gondii we transformed tachyzoites with a c‐Myc‐tagged version of the Toxoplasma MPS1 cDNA, flanked by SAG1 sequences. Western blot analysis showed that the Myc‐MPS1 was only poorly expressed in the stable transformants. In contrast, Northern blot analysis demonstrated that the Myc‐MPS1 mRNA was abundantly transcribed and that the endogenous level of MPS1 mRNA was not affected.