A, schematic representations of the mutant proteins, PrPN-Dpl,
PrPΔpreOR, and PrPΔOR. PrPN-Dpl is a fusion protein consisting of
the N-terminal residues 1-124 of PrP and the residues 58-179 of Dpl.
PrPΔpreOR and PrPΔOR lack the residues 25-50 (preOR) and
51-90 (OR) of PrP, respectively. Arabic numbers represent
the codon numbers. SP, signal peptide; OR, octapeptide
repeat; GPI, GPI anchor signal; α, α-helix; β,
β-strand. B, configuration of the transgenes. Each transgene was
constructed by replacing the DNA fragment encoding PrPN-Dpl, PrPΔpreOR,
or PrPΔOR with a Sal-Sal fragment of the cosSHa-tet vector carrying the
Syrian hamster PrP promoter. The vector-derived DNAs were removed by digestion
with NotI, and the purified fragments were used as transgenes.