PCR was carried with template cry2Ab and In-fusion™ primers. cry2Ab insert was column purified, and concentration was determined. The pET30b+ vector (Novagen) was digested using XhoI and NdeI. Linearized vector was gel extracted, and concentration was measured. see more Vector was ethanol precipitated and was resuspended in water, 5× In-fusion reaction buffer, BSA, cry2Ab and In-fusion enzyme. Reaction mix was

incubated at 37 °C for 30 min and subsequently incubated at 50 °C for an additional 15 min. A portion of incubated mix was transformed into stellar competent cells (Clontech). DNA was purified from various colonies, and cry2Ab-pET30b+ plasmid DNA sequence was confirmed. Plasmid Map Enhancer for Windows 95 version was utilized to generate cry2Ab-pET30b+ plasmid map (not shown). Cry2Aa was used as a positive Akt inhibitor control. The source of the cry2Aa gene is described elsewhere (Liang & Dean, 1994). Nine primers (Table 1) were designed to create single-residue, D block mutants (Sigma). PCR analysis was carried out using KOD polymerase (Novabiochem). Site-directed mutagenesis was performed on cry2Ab-pET30b+ recombinant plasmid (Sadeghi et al., 2010). Cry2Ab wild type and mutants were transformed into DH5α Escherichia coli cells. Samples were grown in 5 mL of Luria

broth (LB) supplemented with 30 μg mL−1 of kanamycin overnight (Lin et al., 2008). DNA was purified using Qiagen miniprep kit and sequences were confirmed for each sample. Cry2Ab wild type and mutants were transformed into BL21 Roseetta 2 (DE3) cells and selected for kanamycin and chloramphenicol resistance. LB (5 mL), supplemented with 30 μg mL−1 of kanamycin plus chloramphenicol, was inoculated with Cry2Ab wild type or respective mutant and grown at 37 °C overnight (O/N). Five millilitres of inoculum were added to 500 mL of 2xYT supplemented with 30 μg mL−1 of kanamycin and grown at 37 °C to OD600 nm ranging from 0.5 to 0.7. Culture was induced with 0.1 mM isopropyl-β-D-thio-galactoside (IPTG) at 25 °C O/N

ADP ribosylation factor (Li et al., 2011). IPTG-induced bacterial cells were centrifuged (9820 g) at 4 °C. Harvested cells were resuspended in 50 mL of 50 mM Tris bruffer, pH 8. Cells were sonicated at room temperature for 2 min (10 s pulse on : 10 s pulse off ). The final pellet was resuspended in minimal crystal wash II. Protein samples were solubilized for 2 h in 50 mM Na2CO3, pH 10.5. Protoxin samples were separated by 10% SDS-PAGE and stained using Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250. Densitometric scanning (Personal densitometer SI) was employed to scan Coomassie-stained gel for quantification (Fig. 2). Standard curve was generated by ion-exchange purified protein ranging in concentration from 0 to 40 μg and corresponding volume bands analysed by imagequant.