Characteristics of phospholipase A2 mutant of the starfish

１ Site-directed mutagenesis study of phospholipase A2 (PLA2) from the pyloric ceca of starfish Asterina pectinifera was used to probe the relationship between polar-group specificity and structure of the pancreatic loop region. The sequence of the cDNA encoding the starfish PLA2 was exchanged by the oligonucleotide-directed dual amber-long and accurate polymerase chain reaction method to insert Lys residue between Cys-62 and Gly-63. The modified cDNA was inserted into the expression plasmid pET-16b, and PLA2 mutant was expressed in Escherichia coli OrigamiTM B (DE3) by induction with isopropyl-beta-D(-)-thiogalactopyranoside. The starfish PLA2 mutant showed essentially the same properties as the starfish native PLA2 with respect to substrate positional specificity, optimum pH, optimum temperature, Ca2+ requirement, and sodium deoxycholate requirement. However, the specific activity of the starfish PLA2 mutant for egg yolk PC (950 U/mg) was extremely lower than that of native PLA2 (119,000 U/mg), whereas near to that of porcine pancreatic PLA2 (4,300 U/mg). Moreover, the ratio of specific activity of the PLA2 mutan