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Wolffish Antifreeze Protein from Transgenic Drosophila

Bio/Technology volume 8, pages 453–457 (1990)Cite this article

Abstract

We have expressed two antifreeze protein genes from the Atlantic wolffish, Anarhichas lupus, in Drosophila melanogaster by placing them under the divergent transcriptional control of the host yolk poly-peptide (1 and 2) gene promoters. Both genes were joined to the central promoter region by fusion within the DNA encoding the signal polypeptides. The chimeric genes were introduced into flightless mutant Drosophila through P-element transformation. Transformed adult females from individual lines accumulated 1.5–5 mg/ml of antifreeze protein in their hemolymph. The protein was purified to homogeneity from hemolymph following thermal denaturation, step elution from SP-Sephadex, and reverse-phase HPLC. It was recovered in high yield and retained full biological activity even though one of the two gene fusions gave rise to a seven amino acid N-terminal extension on its antifreeze protein product.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Derrick E. Rancourt

    Present address: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112, U.S.A.

  2. Peter L. Davies: Corresponding author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

    Derrick E. Rancourt, Iain D. Peters & Peter L. Davies

  2. Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada

    Virginia K. Walker

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  3. Virginia K. Walker
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  4. Peter L. Davies
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Rancourt, D., Peters, I., Walker, V. et al. Wolffish Antifreeze Protein from Transgenic Drosophila. Nat Biotechnol 8, 453–457 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0590-453

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