Disruption of the 37-kDa/67-kDa laminin receptor gene in bovine fetal fibroblasts

Abstract

The 37-kDa/67-kDa laminin receptor (LRP/LR), also known as ribosomal protein SA (RPSA), acts as a cell surface receptor for prions and plays an important role in internalization of cellular prion protein. In this study, we knocked out the part of prion binding sites (aa 161-205) by gene targeting in the bovine fetal fibroblasts (BFF). This is the first report about disrupting the gene encoding for the prion binding site in bovine fetal fibroblasts. The heterozygous BFF are ready to be used in producing homozygous cattle, which will be applied to study the interaction between prion and the 37-kDa/67-kDa LRP/LR.

Key words: Prion, PrP^C, PrP^Sc, 37-kDa/67-kDa laminin receptor, gene targeting.