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1: FEBS Lett. 2004 Aug 27;573(1-3):135-8.Click here to read Links

Recombinant curculin heterodimer exhibits taste-modifying and sweet-tasting activities.

Suzuki M, Kurimoto E, Nirasawa S, Masuda Y, Hori K, Kurihara Y, Shimba N, Kawai M, Suzuki E, Kato K.

Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya City University, 3-1 Tanabe-dori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8603, Japan.

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.

PMID: 15327988 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]