| 内容提要: |
In Bacillus subtilis there exists a lumazine synthase (BsLS)-riboflavin synthase (BsRS) complex (also called heavy riboflavin synthase), which consists of anicosahedral capsid of 60 β-subunits (BsLS) containing a core of three α-subunits (BsRS). The 60 β-subunits form a dodecahedral capsid that is similar to the AaLS capsid, with five-fold symmetric pores extending through the middles of the pentamers[9]. The structure of the BsLS capsid was determined from crystals of the α3β60 complex, but the riboflavin synthase was not seen and the structure of BsRS remains unknown.We hypothesize that the C-terminus of BsRS can act as a tag for the encapsulation of other proteins in BsLS. In this work, I fused the last 11 and the last 32 amino acids of BsRS to the C-terminus of GFP (GFP11 and GFP32, respectively) and then co-produced the GFP mutants with BsLS. We then examined whether the GFP variants can go into the BsLS capsid using fluorescence spectroscopy and size-exclusion chromatography. |