Cloning and Expression of Lipase Gene JcLIP in Jatropha curcas and Its Protein Structure Prediction
麻疯树脂酶全长基因克隆、表达及其蛋白质结构预测

Lipase is one of the most widely used enzymes in industries such as leather, food and bio-diesel production. It is valuable for its application to other fields. But research into lipase from plants is less reported than that of other lipases. In this paper, we describe the cloning of a lipase gene from Jatropha curcas, which has great potential in bio-diesel production. Degenerated primers were designed according to multiple alignments with homologous sequences relative to J. curcas. RT-PCR and random amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) were performed to obtain full-length cDNA of JcLIP. The lipase was expressed in E. coli. The results of enzyme assay showed that the protein was in inclusion body, with the activity of the supernate only 0.8 U.mL-1. Structural prediction and comparison revealed JcLIP protein with the right structural core and catalytic activity site of lipase. The random coils and insertions of the JcLIP protein sequence is partially different in structure from that of lipase of Rhizomucor miehei, which may imply a different activity.