Alexander V. Belyavsky

A NOVEL MURINE CATHELIN-LIKE PROTEIN EXPRESSED IN BONE MARROW

A novel cDNA encoding a putative secreted protein was isolated from murine bone marrow. The encoded protein named MCLP ( urine athelin‐ ike rotein) was found to be highly homologous to the pig cathelin, and to four neutrophil antimicrobial polypeptides: CAP 18, indolicidin, Bac 5 and FALL‐39. Secondary structure prediction studies identified a highly cationic region in the C‐terminal part of prepro‐MCLP with a tendency to adopt an amphipathic α‐helical conformation, as observed in many antimicrobial peptides. However, no antibacterial activity was observed with the synthetic peptide corresponding to this region of MCLP.

Genomic structure and alternative splicing of the murine bhk/ctk/ntk gene

Recently, we and others have cloned cDNAs encoding a second member of the Csk family of inhibitory protein kinases, which we termed Bhk [M.A. Ershler et al. (1994) Dokl. Akad. Nauk. 339, 679–683]. In the present study, two new distinct types of bhk mRNA were found in addition to the third form described previously. Analysis of the bhk genomic structure established that three exons participate in the alternative splicing of bhk mRNA.

Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in Sorted Cell Populations by Two-Dimensional Gene-Expression Fingerprinting

Differential activity of genes is one of the major mechanisms underlying a vast array of biological phenomena. Classical genetic approaches (from phenotypes to genes) have proven their exquisite potential for dissection of complex signaling pathways regulating the development of organisms and the functioning of individual cells. In recent years, with the advent of a number of techniques for studying gene function, the reverse genetics approach (from genes to phenotypes) has received broad acceptance. One of the advantages of this strategy is that it makes genes, whose dysfunction either does not produce an evident phenotype or is lethal, amenable to analysis. Reverse genetics has spearheaded the development of procedures for identification of candidate genes for this type of analysis by detecting spatial or temporal changes in geneexpression patterns. A significant range of methods have been proposed (1-7); in particular, the advent of microarray hybridization techniques promises to increase gene-expression analysis throughput by two or more orders of magnitude (8,9). Some of these procedures have been used to identify genes expressed differentially during hematopoiesis (10,11).