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Recombinant curculin heterodimer exhibits taste-modifying and sweet-tasting activities
Maiko Suzuki1, Eiji Kurimoto, Satoru Nirasawa
1Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya City University, 3-1 Tanabe-dori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8603, Japan.
Abstract:
Curculin from Curculigo latifolia is a unique sweet protein that exhibits both sweet-tasting and taste-modifying activities. We isolated a gene that encodes a novel protein highly homologous to curculin. Using cDNAs of the previously known curculin (designated as curculin1) and the novel curculin isoform (curculin2), we produced a panel of homodimeric and heterodimeric recombinant curculins by Escherichia coli expression systems. It was revealed that sweet-tasting and taste-modifying activities were exhibited solely by the heterodimer of curculin1 and curculin2.
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