When the cDNA encoding bovine microsomal 17a-hydroxylase cytochrome P450 (P45017a) containing modifications within the first seven codons which favor expression in Escherichia coli is placed in a highly regulated tac promoter expression plasmid, as much as 16 mg of spectrally detectable P45017a per liter of culture can be synthesized and integrated into E. coli membranes. The known enzymatic activities of bovine P45017a can be reconstituted by addition of purified rat liver NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase to isolated E. coli membrane fractions containing the recombinant P45017a enzyme. Surprisingly, it is found that E. coli contain an electrontransport system that can substitute for the mammalian microsomal NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase in supporting both the 17a-hydroxylase and 17,20-lyase activities of P45017a. Thus, not only can E. coli express this eukaryotic membrane protein at relatively high levels, but as evidenced by metabolism of steroids added directly to the cells, the enzyme is catalytically active in vivo. These studies establish E. coli as an efficacious heterologous expression system for structurefunction analysis of the cytochrome P450 system. Microsomal cytochromes P450 are integral membrane hemoproteins that catalyze the oxidative metabolism of a wide variety of endogenous and exogenous compounds. Deriving reducing equivalents from NADPH via a membrane-bound flavoprotein oxidoreductase (NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase), these mixed-function oxidases activate molecular oxygen so as to insert one atom into a lipophilic substrate and the other atom into water. Recent study of the molecular aspects underlying eukaryotic cytochrome P450 structure and function has relied on the techniques of molecular biology to synthesize specific individual forms ofcytochrome P450 in heterologous expression systems. Yeast (1), COS 1 (2), and eukaryotic cells infected with a viral vector (3, 4) have been used as hosts for the heterologous expression of cytochrome P450 molecules; however, each has limitations to their usefulness as systems for structure-function analysis. Although the bacterium Escherichia coli has demonstrated great usefulness in the expression of many prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins, E. coli as an expression system for cytochrome P450 has been limited primarily to the soluble prokaryotic forms of this gene superfamily (5). We have used the cDNA encoding bovine 17a-hydroxylase cytochrome P450 (P45017a) to examine the utility of E. coli as an expression system for eukaryotic cytochromes P450 in the hopes that such a system might prove suitable for both enzymatic and structural studies. This microsomal cytochrome P450 catalyzes the regiospecific and stereospecific 17a-hydroxylation of the C21 steroids pregnenolone and progesterone in the pathway leading to the production of cortisol and the 17,20-lyase conversion of 17a-hydroxypregnenolone to the C19 adrenal androgen dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in the adrenal cortex of most mammalian species. P45017a also converts these 17a-hydroxylat...

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The Clara-cell secretory protein (CCSP) is a cell-specific differentiation marker for the bronchiolar Clara cell. Isolated rat Clara and alveolar type 2 cells kept in primary culture proliferate and dedifferentiate, providing the opportunity to study differentiation-dependent mechanisms. In freshly isolated Clara cells, high levels of CCSP and the corresponding mRNA were detected. During culture in vitro, these levels decreased. In the type 2 cell fraction, low levels of CCSP were detected, which decreased further during culture. A promoter fragment of the rat CCSP gene encompassing the sequence from -188 to +53 was able to drive high-level expression of reporter genes in transfected Clara cells. Reporter gene expression in transfected type 2 cells was markedly lower, and no expression could be detected in alveolar macrophages. Expression of transcription factors previously described to stimulate CCSP expression appeared not to parallel CCSP levels in the primary Clara cells. However, expression of the transcription factor C/EBP alpha correlated with the CCSP expression pattern. In electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we were able to demonstrate binding of C/EBP alpha from rat Clara cell nuclear extracts to an element located 85 bp upstream of the start site of transcription. Overexpression of C/EBP alpha increased expression from the CCSP -188 promoter fragment up to fivefold in NCI-H441-cells and 30-fold in A549-cells, establishing the functional importance of C/EBP alpha. Our results show that primary cultures of Clara cells constitute a useful model for investigating terminal airway differentiation and suggest a role for C/EBP-factor(s) in this process.

Metabolites of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) bind with high affinity to uteroglobin, a small homodimeric protein that also binds progesterone. We present the solution structure of the reduced form of rat uteroglobin in complex with a PCB methylsulphone, (MeSO2)2-TCB. The structure reveals the molecular basis for the accumulation of (MeSO2)2-TCB by uteroglobin. The structure also shows how ligand binding and release might be controlled by reduction/oxidation of two intermolecular disulphide bonds. Breakage of these bonds induces a local unfolding of the N- and C-termini and a separation of helices creating a channel into the binding site. These effects make the ligand binding cavity readily accessible to entry of the ligand.

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