Abstract :
[en] Heat-shock proteins (Hsps) from various origins are known to share a conserved
structure and are assumed to be key partners in the biogenesis of proteins.
Fractionation of the mycobacterial Hsp60, a 65 kDa protein also called Cpn60,
from Mycobacterium bovis BCG zinc-deficient culture filtrate on phenyl-Sepharose
followed by Western blotting revealed the existence of four Hsp60-1 and Hsp60-2
forms, based on their hydrophobicity behaviour. Hsp60-2 species were further
purified by ion-exchange chromatography and partial amino acid sequences of
cyanogen bromide (CNBr) peptides of purified Hsp60-2 species showed identity with
the amino acid sequence deduced from the hsp60-2 gene, indicating that the
various Hsp60-2 forms are encoded by the same gene. In addition, the
mycobacterial Hsp60-2 was overexpressed in E. coli using the pRR3Hsp60-2 plasmid
and analysed on phenyl-Sepharose. The elution pattern of the recombinant Hsp60-2,
as well as that of Escherichia coli GroEL, was similar to that of the native
Hsp60-2 from the culture filtrate of M. bovis BCG and entirely different from
that of the mycobacterial antigen 85. Extraction of mycobacterial Hsp60-2 forms,
recombinant BCG Hsp60-2 and E. coli GroEL with organic solvents releases various
amounts of non-covalently bound lipids. The presence of lipids on Hsp60-2 was
confirmed by labelling M. bovis BCG with radioactive palmitate. The radioactivity
was specifically associated with Hsp60 in the aqueous phase and the 19 and 38 kDa
lipoproteins in the Triton X-114 phase. Analysis of the lipids extracted from
purified Hsp60-2, recombinant BCG Hsp60-2 and E. coli GroEL by TLC showed the
same pattern for all the samples. Acid methanolysis of the lipids followed by GC
analysis led to the identification of C(16:0), C(18:0) and C(18:1) as the major
fatty acyl constituents, and of methylglycoside in these proteins. Altogether,
these data demonstrate that lipids are non-covalently bound to Hsp60-2 and
homologous proteins.
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