scholarly journals Purification, Characterization, and Molecular Analysis of Thermostable Cellulases CelA and CelB fromThermotoga neapolitana

1998 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 4774-4781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin-Duck Bok ◽  
Dinesh A. Yernool ◽  
Douglas E. Eveleigh

ABSTRACT Two thermostable endocellulases, CelA and CelB, were purified fromThermotoga neapolitana. CelA (molecular mass, 29 kDa; pI 4.6) is optimally active at pH 6.0 at 95°C, while CelB (molecular mass, 30 kDa; pI 4.1) has a broader optimal pH range (pH 6.0 to 6.6) at 106°C. Both enzymes are characterized by a high level of activity (high V max value and low apparentKm value) with carboxymethyl cellulose; the specific activities of CelA and CelB are 1,219 and 1,536 U/mg, respectively. With p-nitrophenyl cellobioside theV max values of CelA and CelB are 69.2 and 18.4 U/mg, respectively, while the Km values are 0.97 and 0.3 mM, respectively. The major end products of cellulose hydrolysis, glucose and cellobiose, competitively inhibit CelA, and CelB. The Ki values for CelA are 0.44 M for glucose and 2.5 mM for cellobiose; the Ki values for CelB are 0.2 M for glucose and 1.16 mM for cellobiose. CelB preferentially cleaves larger cellooligomers, producing cellobiose as the end product; it also exhibits significant transglycosylation activity. This enzyme is highly thermostable and has half-lives of 130 min at 106°C and 26 min at 110°C. A single clone encoding thecelA and celB genes was identified by screening a T. neapolitana genomic library in Escherichia coli. The celA gene encodes a 257-amino-acid protein, while celB encodes a 274-amino-acid protein. Both proteins belong to family 12 of the glycosyl hydrolases, and the two proteins are 60% similar to each other. Northern blots of T. neapolitana mRNA revealed that celA andcelB are monocistronic messages, and both genes are inducible by cellobiose and are repressed by glucose.

1998 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 1650-1656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter W. Coschigano ◽  
Thomas S. Wehrman ◽  
L. Y. Young

ABSTRACT The denitrifying strain T1 is able to grow with toluene serving as its sole carbon source. Two mutants which have defects in this toluene utilization pathway have been characterized. A clone has been isolated, and subclones which contain tutD and tutE, two genes in the T1 toluene metabolic pathway, have been generated. ThetutD gene codes for an 864-amino-acid protein with a calculated molecular mass of 97,600 Da. The tutE gene codes for a 375-amino-acid protein with a calculated molecular mass of 41,300 Da. Two additional small open reading frames have been identified, but their role is not known. The TutE protein has homology to pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzymes. The TutD protein has homology to pyruvate formate-lyase enzymes, including a conserved cysteine residue at the active site and a conserved glycine residue that is activated to a free radical in this enzyme. Site-directed mutagenesis of these two conserved amino acids shows that they are also essential for the function of TutD.


2014 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
FANG LIU ◽  
WENJUAN XU ◽  
LIHUI DU ◽  
DAOYING WANG ◽  
YONGZHI ZHU ◽  
...  

Tyrosine decarboxylase (TDC) is responsible for tyramine production and can catalyze phenylalanine to produce β-phenylethylamine. Enterococcus strains are a group of bacteria predominantly producing tyramine and β-phenylethylamine in water-boiled salted duck. In this study, the heterologous expression and characterization of two TDCs from Enterococcus faecalis R612Z1 (612TDC) and Enterococcus faecium R615Z1 (615TDC) were studied. The recombinant putative proteins of 612TDC and 615TDC were heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. 612TDC is a 620-amino-acid protein with a molecular mass of 70.0 kDa, whereas 615TDC is a 625-amino-acid protein with a molecular mass of 70.3 kDa. Both 612TDC and 615TDC showed an optimum temperature of 25°C for the tyrosine and phenylalanine substrates. However, 612TDC revealed maximal activity at pH 5.5, whereas 615TDC revealed maximal activity at pH 6.0. Kinetic studies showed that 612TDC and 615TDC exhibited higher specificity for tyrosine than for phenylalanine. The catalysis abilities of both 612TDC and 615TDC for phenylalanine were restrained significantly with the increase in NaCl concentration, but this was not the case for tyrosine. This study revealed that the enzyme properties of the purified recombinant 612TDC and 615TDC were similar, although their amino acid sequences had 84% identity.


2003 ◽  
Vol 375 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sreenivas KANUGULA ◽  
Anthony E. PEGG

AGT (O6-alkylguanine DNA alkyltransferase) is an important DNA-repair protein that protects cells from killing and mutagenesis by alkylating agents. The AGT genes from two extremely thermophilic organisms, the bacterium Aquifex aeolicus and the archaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus were PCR-derived and cloned into an expression vector. The nucleotide sequence of the Aq. aeolicus AGT encodes a 201-amino-acid protein with a molecular mass of 23000 Da and Ar. fulgidus AGT codes for a 147-amino-acid protein with a molecular mass of 16718 Da. The Aq. aeolicus and Ar. fulgidus AGTs were expressed at high levels in Escherichia coli fused to an N-terminal polyhistidine tag that allowed single-step isolation and purification by metal-affinity chromatography. Both AGTs formed inclusion bodies and were not soluble under native purification conditions. Therefore AGT isolation was performed under protein-denaturation conditions in the presence of 8.0 M urea. Soluble AGT was obtained by refolding the AGT in the presence of calf thymus DNA. Both AGTs were active in repairing O6-methylguanine and, at a lower rate, O4-methylthymine in DNA. They exhibited thermostability and optimum activity at high temperature. The thermostable AGTs, particularly that from Aq. aeolicus, were readily inactivated by the low-molecular-mass inhibitor O6-benzylguanine, which is currently in clinical trials to enhance cancer chemotherapy.


2000 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 1309-1314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette W. P. Teo ◽  
Antonius Suwanto ◽  
Chit Laa Poh

ABSTRACT Two ampicillin-resistant (Ampr) isolates ofVibrio harveyi, W3B and HB3, were obtained from the coastal waters of the Indonesian island of Java. Strain W3B was isolated from marine water near a shrimp farm in North Java while HB3 was from pristine seawater in South Java. In this study, novel β-lactamase genes from W3B (bla VHW-1) and HB3 (bla VHH-1) were cloned and their nucleotide sequences were determined. An open reading frame (ORF) of 870 bp encoding a deduced protein of 290 amino acids (VHW-1) was revealed for the bla gene of strain W3B while an ORF of 849 bp encoding a 283-amino-acid protein (VHH-1) was deduced forbla VHH-1. At the DNA level, genes for VHW-1 and VHH-1 have a 97% homology, while at the protein level they have a 91% homology of amino acid sequences. Neither gene sequence showed homology to any other β-lactamases in the databases. The deduced proteins were found to be class A β-lactamases bearing low levels of homology (<50%) to other β-lactamases of the same class. The highest level of identity was obtained with β-lactamases from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, i.e., PSE-1, PSE-4, and CARB-3, and Vibrio cholerae CARB-6. Our study showed that both strains W3B and HB3 possess an endogenous plasmid of approximately 60 kb in size. However, Southern hybridization analysis employingbla VHW-1 as a gene probe demonstrated that thebla gene was not located in the plasmid. A total of nine ampicillin-resistant V. harveyi strains, including W3B and HB3, were examined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis ofNotI-digested genomic DNA. Despite a high level of intrastrain genetic diversity, thebla VHW-1 probe hybridized only to an 80- or 160-kb NotI genomic fragment in different isolates.


2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (15) ◽  
pp. 5067-5074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisuke Kasai ◽  
Eiji Masai ◽  
Keisuke Miyauchi ◽  
Yoshihiro Katayama ◽  
Masao Fukuda

ABSTRACT Sphingomonas paucimobilis SYK-6 converts vanillate and syringate to protocatechuate (PCA) and 3-O-methylgallate (3MGA) in reactions with the tetrahydrofolate-dependent O-demethylases LigM and DesA, respectively. PCA is further degraded via the PCA 4,5-cleavage pathway, whereas 3MGA is metabolized via three distinct pathways in which PCA 4,5-dioxygenase (LigAB), 3MGA 3,4-dioxygenase (DesZ), and 3MGA O-demethylase (LigM) are involved. In the 3MGA O-demethylation pathway, LigM converts 3MGA to gallate, and the resulting gallate appears to be degraded by a dioxygenase other than LigAB or DesZ. Here, we isolated the gallate dioxygenase gene, desB, which encodes a 418-amino-acid protein with a molecular mass of 46,843 Da. The amino acid sequences of the N-terminal region (residues 1 to 285) and the C-terminal region (residues 286 to 418) of DesB exhibited ca. 40% and 27% identity with the sequences of the PCA 4,5-dioxygenase β and α subunits, respectively. DesB produced in Escherichia coli was purified and was estimated to be a homodimer (86 kDa). DesB specifically attacked gallate to generate 4-oxalomesaconate as the reaction product. The Km for gallate and the V max were determined to be 66.9 ± 9.3 μM and 42.7 ± 2.4 U/mg, respectively. On the basis of the analysis of various SYK-6 mutants lacking the genes involved in syringate degradation, we concluded that (i) all of the three-ring cleavage dioxygenases are involved in syringate catabolism, (ii) the pathway involving LigM and DesB plays an especially important role in the growth of SYK-6 on syringate, and (iii) DesB and LigAB are involved in gallate degradation.


2006 ◽  
Vol 398 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukiko Mizutani ◽  
Akio Kihara ◽  
Yasuyuki Igarashi

The LASS (longevity assurance homologue) family members are highly conserved from yeasts to mammals. Five mouse and human LASS family members, namely LASS1, LASS2, LASS4, LASS5 and LASS6, have been identified and characterized. In the present study we cloned two transcriptional variants of hitherto-uncharacterized mouse LASS3 cDNA, which encode a 384-amino-acid protein (LASS3) and a 419-amino-acid protein (LASS3-long). In vivo, [3H]dihydrosphingosine labelling and electrospray-ionization MS revealed that overproduction of either LASS3 isoform results in increases in several ceramide species, with some preference toward those having middle- to long-chain-fatty acyl-CoAs. A similar substrate preference was observed in an in vitro (dihydro)ceramide synthase assay. These results indicate that LASS3 possesses (dihydro)ceramide synthesis activity with relatively broad substrate specificity. We also found that, except for a weak display in skin, LASS3 mRNA expression is limited almost solely to testis, implying that LASS3 plays an important role in this gland.


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