Abstract: Retinoid X receptor-α (RXR-α), a member of nuclear receptor family, is capable of mediating retinoid signaling pathways and plays a critical role in regulating target gene transcription. To further study the function of RXR-α, abundant of recombinant RXR-α protein in hand is necessary. In this study an intact RXR-α coding sequence was amplified by RT-PCR and subsequently inserted into expression plasmid vector pQE-30Xa to form the recombinant construct of pQE-30Xa/RXR-α. Thereafter, competent bacteria Escherichia coli M15 [PREP4] was transformed and the expression of RXR-α was induced by adding IPTG to the medium. Bacterially expressed recombinant RXR-α was purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography and verified by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting analyses. The results showed that a protein, with the molecular mass around 50 kDa, could be selectively recognized by anti-RXR-α antibody. Co-immunoprecipitation assay indicated that this recombinant RXR-α could effectively bind TRβ1 to form a heterodimer, which could specifically bind the target DNA fragment. This was confirmed by EMSA. In conclusion, the recombinant hu-man retinoid X receptor-α was prepared successfully, which makes a basic for further study of its function.

Key words: retinoid X receptor-α, nest-PCR, co-immunoprecipitation