RECOMBINANT PROTEINS CONTAINING AMINO-ACI D-SEQUENCES OF 2 ECTATOMIN CHAINS

Artificial genes for chains A and B of ectatomin, an Ectatomma tubercu latum ant toxin, were obtained by chemical and enzymic synthesis and c loned into new plasmid vectors. Expression plasmids with the genes of hybrid proteins were constructed containing human interleukin-3 or its terminal 63-mer fragment as well as chains A and B of ectatomin, whic h are linked via a region containing the cleavage site of specific pro tease, enterokinase (hybrid proteins IL3ETOXA, IL3ETOXB, ILETOXA, and ILETOXB). Escherichia coli producer strains providing a high yield of IL3ETOXA and IL3ETOXB proteins as inclusion bodies were obtained.