CK1a (Casein kinase 1 a) is a multifunctional protein that has Ser/Thr protein kinase activity and plays major regulatory roles in many cellular processes such as DNA processing and repair, proliferation, cytoskeleton dynamics, vesicular trafficking, apoptosis, and cell differentiation. CK1a can also alter the activity of critical proteins involved in signal transduction and signal integration. In accordance with this concept, CK1a is one of the key components forming the ß-catenin destruction complex and is tightly connected to the regulation and degradation of ß-catenin in the Wnt signalling pathway. CK1a phosphorylates ß-catenin, which then subsequently, along with other proteins involved in the destruction complex, primes it for ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. The molecular mechanisms regarding the ß-catenin destruction complex are still inadequately researched and poorly understood.
In order to study how CK1a phosphorylates and interacts with ß-catenin and the other proteins within the ß-catenin destruction complex, our research aimed to prepare a purified active form of CK1a protein. A DNA construct of CK1a was prepared, with a hexa-histidine tag (His6) and sfGFP added to its N-terminus as fusion partners. The construct was inserted into the target vector pET-32b(+), which was then used to transform two cultures of E. coli cells. One culture was transformed only with the recombinant vector containing the prepared construct, while the other culture was cotransformed with the plasmid pRARE, in addition to the recombinant vector. Subsequently, expression, isolation, and purification of the protein were performed according to the procedure described in the article.
According to the results obtained from the analysis with NaDS-PAGE, we concluded that the protein was successfully expressed only in the bacterial culture cotransformed with the pRARE plasmid. Furthermore, it is highly likely that our protein was cleaved during the isolation process by endogenous bacterial proteases. These findings provided insights into optimizing the procedure in order to develop a protocol for preparing a purified active form of CK1a. Such a protocol would be valuable for further research on the ß-catenin destruction complex and the Wnt signaling pathway.
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