@article{6898,
  keywords = {Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Armadillos, Cells, Cultured, Escherichia coli, Gene Expression, Genome, Humans, Interleukin-2, Molecular Sequence Data, Recombinant Proteins, Sequence Alignment, Sequence Homology},
  author = {Adams J E and Peña M T and Gillis T P and Williams D L and Adams L B and Truman R W},
  title = {Expression of nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) interleukin-2 in E. coli.},
  abstract = {<p>The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) is the only immunologically intact animal that regularly develops lepromatous-type leprosy when inoculated with Mycobacterium leprae. However, the ability to exploit this model for understanding the pathogenesis of leprosy has been limited by a lack of suitable immunological reagents. Recently, efforts began to sequence the entire armadillo genome, and this sequence information will help make possible the development of a wide array of new immunological reagents suitable for use with armadillos. Using the available sequence data, a region of high homology to interleukin-2 of other mammals was identified. Primers were designed to amplify the coding region corresponding to the mature peptide and its exact sequence was confirmed. cDNA was made from ConA-stimulated armadillo PBMC. The amplified coding region was sub-cloned into a pET expression vector and transformed into Escherichia coli for over-expression. The subsequent product was characterized by SDS-PAGE and bioassays. Tritiated thymidine incorporation by CTLL-2 and armadillo lymphoblasts confirmed functionality of the recombinant product. The advent of the D. novemcinctus genome sequence and subsequent generation of immunological tools will assist in advancing the armadillo as a translational model for leprosy.</p>},
  year = {2005},
  journal = {Cytokine},
  volume = {32},
  pages = {219-25},
  month = {2005 Dec 07},
  issn = {1043-4666},
  doi = {10.1016/j.cyto.2005.09.011},
  language = {eng},
}