Induction studies of the P450 gene in Bacillus megaterium
Description
The cytochrome P450 gene superfamily has representatives in most living organisms and the gene regulatory mechanism seems to have been conserved over an evolutionary time period of more than two billion years. The P450 enzyme is responsible for metabolizing a wide range of xenobiotic and endogenous compounds. Investigating the cytochrome P450 family of enzymes and genes is important to pharmacological research The focus of this research was to study the regulatory portion of a bacterial P450 known as cyp102 found in Bacillus megaterium . This study utilized two different gene constructs. One gene construct had a luciferase reporter gene fused to the truncated portion of the region encoding for the P450 protein. The other construct was truncated so that part of the regulatory region, including the Barbie box, was deleted before attaching a luciferase reporter gene. The purpose of two different gene constructs was to help elucidate the regulatory mechanism of cyp102 This study demonstrated that the cyp102 gene induction system is induced by a variety of alkylphenols, halogenated alkylbenzenes, alkoxybenzenes, alkylanilines, and estradiol. Additionally structure activity relationships can be distinguished Estradiol and xenobiotics that mimic estradiol induce this system. This gene induction system can be used to screen for potential xenobiotics that mimic estrogen. This is an important area of research due to the fact that many widespread industrial pollutants mimic estrogen and affect wildlife Phytoestrogens, phytochemicals known to posses weak estrogenic activity, do not induce this cyp102 system. Phytoestrogens do block the induction of estradiol and other xenoestrogens according to the data obtained