• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.74-80
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• 2004

Aspergillus fumigatus is one of the most common fungi in the human environment, both in-doors and out-doors. It is the main causative agent of invasive aspergillosis, a life-threatening mycosis among immunocompromised patients. The genome has been sequenced by an international consortium, including the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (U.K.) and The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR, U.S.A.), and a ten times whole genome shotgun sequence assembly has been made publicly available. In this study, we identified tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle enzymes of A. fumigatus by comparative analysis with four other fungal species. The open reading frames showed high amino acid sequence similarity with the other fungal citric acid enzymes and well-conserved functional domains. All genes present in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Candida albicans, and Neurospora crassa were also found in A. fumigatus. In addition, we identified four A. fumigatus genes coding for enzymes in the glyoxylate shunt, which may be required for fungal virulence. The architecture of multi-gene encoded enzymes, such as isocitrate dehydrogenase, 2-ketoglutarate, succinyl-CoA synthetase, and succinate dehydrogenase was well conserved in A. fumigatus. Furthermore, our results show that genes of A. fumigatus can be detected reliably using GlimmerM.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제30권10호
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• pp.1592-1596
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• 2020

The aerobic growth and metabolic performance of Escherichia coli strains BL21 and W3110 were studied when the Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) was constitutively expressed in the chromosome. When VHb was expressed, acetate production decreased in both strains and was nearly eliminated in BL21. Transcriptional levels of the glyoxylate shunt genes decreased in both strains when VHb was expressed. However, higher transcription of the α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase genes were observed for W3110, while for BL21 transcription levels decreased. VHb expression reduced the transcription of the cytochrome bo₃ genes only in BL21. These results are useful for better selecting a production host.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제32권12호
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• pp.1527-1536
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• 2022

Escherichia coli can use allantoin as its sole nitrogen source under anaerobic conditions. The ureidoglycolate produced by double release of ammonia from allantoin can flow into either the glyoxylate shunt or further catabolic transcarbamoylation. Although the former pathway is well studied, the genes of the latter (catabolic) pathway are not known. In the catabolic pathway, ureidoglycolate is finally converted to carbamoyl phosphate (CP) and oxamate, and then CP is dephosphorylated to carbamate by a catabolic carbamate kinase (CK), whereby ATP is formed. We identified the ybcF gene in a gene cluster containing fdrA-ylbE-ylbF-ybcF that is located downstream of the allDCE-operon. Reverse transcription PCR of total mRNA confirmed that the genes fdrA, ylbE, ylbF, and ybcF are co-transcribed. Deletion of ybcF caused only a slight increase in metabolic flow into the glyoxylate pathway, probably because CP was used to de novo synthesize pyrimidine and arginine. The activity of the catabolic CK was analyzed using purified YbcF protein. The V_max is 1.82 U/mg YbcF for CP and 1.94 U/mg YbcF for ADP, and the K_M value is 0.47 mM for CP and 0.43 mM for ADP. With these results, it was experimentally revealed that the ybcF gene of E. coli encodes catabolic CK, which completes anaerobic allantoin degradation through substrate-level phosphorylation. Therefore, we suggest renaming the ybcF gene as allK.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제19권10호
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• pp.1127-1134
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• 2009

Escherichia coli excretes acetate during aerobic growth on glycolytic carbon sources, which has been explained as an overflow metabolism when the carbon flux into the cell exceeds the capacity of central metabolic pathways. Nonacetogenic growth of E. coli on gluconeogenic carbon sources like succinate or in carbon-limited slow growth conditions is believed an evidence for the explanation. However, we found that a strain defected in the acs (acetyl Co-A synthetase) gene, the product of which is involved in scavenging acetate, accumulated acetate even in succinate medium and in carbon-limited low growth rate condition, where as its isogenic parental strain did not. The acs promoter was inducible in noncatabolite repression condition, whereas the expression of the ackA-pta operon encoding acetate kinase and phosphotransacetylase for acetate synthesis was constitutive. Results in this study suggest that E. coli excretes and scavenges acetate simultaneously in the carbon-limited low growth condition and in nonacetogenic carbon source, and the activity of the acetate consumption pathway directly affects the accumulation level of acetate in the culture broth.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.23-36
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• 2009

In the present work, the metabolic network of primary metabolism of the slow-growing myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum was reconstructed from the annotated genome sequence of the type strain So ce56. During growth on glucose as the carbon source and asparagine as the nitrogen source, So ce56 showed a very low growth rate of $0.23\;d^{-1}$, equivalent to a doubling time of 3 days. Based on a complete stoichiometric and isotopomer model of the central metabolism, $^{13}C$ metabolic flux analysis was carried out for growth with glucose as carbon and asparagine as nitrogen sources. Normalized to the uptake flux for glucose (100%), cells recruited glycolysis (51%) and the pentose phosphate pathway (48%) as major catabolic pathways. The Entner-Doudoroff pathway and glyoxylate shunt were not active. A high flux through the TCA cycle (118%) enabled a strong formation of ATP, but cells revealed a rather low yield for biomass. Inspection of fluxes linked to energy metabolism revealed that S. cellulosum utilized only 10% of the ATP formed for growth, whereas 90% is required for maintenance. This explains the apparent discrepancy between the relatively low biomass yield and the high flux through the energy-delivering TCA cycle. The total flux of NADPH supply (216%) was higher than the demand for anabolism (156%), indicating additional reactions for balancing of NADPH. The cells further exhibited a highly active metabolic cycle, interconverting $C_3$ and $C_4$ metabolites of glycolysis and the TCA cycle. The present work provides the first insight into fluxes of the primary metabolism of myxobacteria, especially for future investigation on the supply of cofactors, building blocks, and energy in myxobacteria, producing natural compounds of biotechnological interest.