• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.619-628
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• 2014

To identify lipase LipA (PFL_0617) from Pseudomonas protegens Pf-5, a lipA deletion mutant (Pf0617) and a complementary strain (Pf0617lipA) were constructed, and their effects on the lipase production were examined. Pf0617 remarkably decreased its whole-cell lipase activity, whereas Pf0617lipA made its whole-cell lipase activity not only restore to wild-type level but also get a further increment. However, the deletion and overexpression of lipA did not affect the extracellular lipase activity. In addition, the unbroken whole cells of these strains were able to catalyze the hydrolysis of membrane-permeable p-nitrophenyl esters, but could not hydrolyze the membrane-impermeable olive oil. These results confirmed that LipA was an intracellular lipase and Pf-5 could also be used as a natural whole-cell biocatalyst. To evaluate the potential of Pf-5 as a whole-cell biocatalyst and separately characterize the whole-cell LipA, the properties of the whole-cell lipases from Pf-5 and Top10lipA were characterized. The results demonstrated that both Pf-5 and Top10lipA exhibited high tolerance to alkaline condition, high temperature, heavy metal ions, surfactants, and organic solvents. Taken together, lipA can realize functional expression in E. coli Top10, and Pf-5 and Top10lipA as whole-cell biocatalysts may have enormous potential in applications.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 2014

Oligopeptidase B (OpdB) is a serine peptidase widespread among bacteria and protozoa that has emerged as a virulence factor despite its function has not yet been precisely established. By using an OpdB-overexpressing Escherichia coli strain, we found that the overexpressed peptidase makes the bacterial cells specifically less susceptible to several proline-rich antimicrobial peptides known to penetrate into the bacterial cytosol, and that its level of activity directly correlates with the degree of resistance. We established that E. coli OpdB can efficiently hydrolyze in vitro cationic antimicrobial peptides up to 30 residues in length, even though they contained several prolines, shortening them to inactive fragments. Two consecutive basic residues are a preferred cleavage site for the peptidase. In the case of a single basic residue, there is no cleavage if proline residues are present in the $P_1$ and $P_2$ positions. These results also indicate that cytosolic peptidases may cause resistance to antimicrobial peptides that have an intracellular mechanism of action, such as the proline-rich peptides, and may contribute to define the substrate specificity of the E. coli OpdB.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1064-1069
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• 2008

Levan fructotransferase (LFTase) preferentially catalyzes the transfructosylation reaction in addition to levan hydrolysis, whereas other levan-degrading enzymes hydrolyze levan into a levan-oligosaccharide and fructose. Based on sequence comparisons and enzymatic properties, the fructosyl transfer activity of LFTase is proposed to have evolved from levanase. In order to probe the residues that are critical to the intramolecular fructosyl transfer reaction of the Microbacterium sp. AL-210 LFTase, an error-prone PCR mutagenesis process was carried out, and the mutants that led to a shift in activity from transfructosylation towards hydrolysis of levan were screened by the DNS method. After two rounds of mutagenesis, TLC and HPLC analyses of the reaction products by the selected mutants revealed two major products; one is a di-D-fructose-2,6':6,2'-dianhydride (DFAIV) and the other is a levanbiose. The newly detected levanbiose corresponds to the reaction product from LFTase lacking transferring activity. Two mutants (2-F8 and 2-G9) showed a high yield of levanbiose (38-40%) compared with the wild-type enzyme, and thus behaved as levanases. Sequence analysis of the individual mutants responsible for the enhanced hydrolytic activity indicated that Asn-85 was highly involved in the transfructosylation activity of LFTase.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2018

The expression, purification, and characterization of cold-adapted lipase from the psychrophile, Janthinobacterium sp. were investigated. The gene encoding lipase from Janthinobacterium sp. PAMC 25641 was cloned into a pET28a(+) vector and heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). The amino acid sequence deduced from the nucleotide sequence (930 bp) corresponded to a protein having 309 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of 32.7 kDa and a pI of 5.55. Recombinant E. coli harboring the Janthinobacterium lipase gene were induced by addition of isopropyl-${\beta}$-D-thiogalactopyranoside. $Ni^{2+}$-NTA affinity chromatography was used to purify the lipase, which had a specific activity of 107.9 U/mg protein. The effect of temperature and pH on the activity of lipase was measured using p-nitrophenyl octanoate as a substrate. The stability of the lipase at low temperatures indicated it is a cold-adapted enzyme. The lipase activity was increased by $Na^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, and $Mn^{2+}$, and decreased by $Zn^{2+}$ and $Co^{2+}$. Analysis of the lipase activity using various p-nitrophenyl esters showed a strong preference toward short acyl chains of the esters, indicating the ability of the cold-adapted lipase to hydrolyze short-chain esters.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1882-1893
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• 2019

β-Glucosidases and β-xylosidases are two categories of enzymes that could cleave out non-reducing, terminal β-D-glucosyl and β-D-xylosyl residues with release of D-glucose and D-xylose, respectively. In this paper, two functional β-glucosidase Dth3 and β-xylosidase Xln-DT from Dictyoglomus thermophilum were heterologously expressed in E.coli BL21 (DE3). Dth3 and Xln-DT were relatively stable at 75℃ and were tolerant or even stimulated by glucose and xylose. Dth3 was highly tolerant to glucose with a K_i value of approximately 3 M. Meanwhile, it was not affected by xylose in high concentration. The activity of Xln-DT was stimulated 2.13-fold by 1 M glucose and 1.29-fold by 0.3 M xylose, respectively. Furthermore, the βglucosidase Dth3 and β-xylosidase Xln-DT showed excellent selectivity to cleave the outer C-6 and C-3 sugar moieties of ASI, which established an effective and green method to produce the more pharmacologically active CAG, an exclusive telomerase activator. We measured temperature, pH and dosage of enzyme using a single-factor experiment in ASI biotransformation. After optimization, the optimal reaction conditions were as follows: 75℃, pH 5.5, 1 U of Dth3 and 0.2 U of Xln-DT, respectively. Under the optimized conditions, 1 g/l ASI was transformed into 0.63 g/l CAG with a corresponding molar conversion of 94.5% within 3 h. This is the first report to use the purified thermostable and sugar-tolerant enzymes from Dictyoglomus thermophilum to hydrolyze ASI synergistically, which provides a specific, environment-friendly and cost-effective way to produce CAG.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.1132-1138
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• 2006

Three types of xylanases (EC 3.2.1.8) were detected in the strain Aspergillus niger A-25, one of which, designated as XynIII, also displayed ${\beta}-(l,3-1,4)-glucanase$ (EC 3.2.1.73) activity, as determined by a zymogram analysis. XynIII was purified by ultrafiltration and ion-exchange chromatography methods. Its apparent molecular weight was about 27.9 kDa, as estimated by SDS-PAGE. The purified XynIII could hydrolyze birchwood xylan, oat spelt xylan, lichenin, and barley ${\beta}-glucan$, but not CMC, avicel cellulose, or soluble starch under the assay conditions in this study. The xylanase and ${\beta}-(l,3-1,4)-glucanase$ activities of XynIII both had a similar optimal pH and pH stability, as well as a similar optimal temperature and temperature stability. Moreover, the effects of metal ions on the two enzymatic activities were also similar. The overall hydrolytic rates of XynIII in different mixtures of xylan and lichenin coincided with those calculated using the Michaelis-Menten model when assuming the two substrates were competing for the same active site in the enzyme. Accordingly, the results indicated that XynIII is a novel bifunctional enzyme and its xylanase and ${\beta}-(l,3-1,4)-glucanase$ activities are catalyzed by the same active center.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.612-619
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• 2000

To investigate the biochemical properties of V. mimicus metalloprotease, whose gene was isolated previously from Vibrio mimicus ATCC33653, overexpression and purification were attempted. The 1.9 kb of open reading frame was amplified by PCR from pVMC193 plasmid which ligated the VMC gene with pUC19 and introduced into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) using the overexpression vector, pET22b (+). The overexpressed metalloprotease (VMC) was purified with Ni-NTA column chromatography and characterized with various protease inhibitors, pHs, temperatures, and substrates. The purified VMC showed the proteolytic activity against gelatin, soluble and insoluble collagens, and synthetic peptides. Unlike the observations made with all metalloproteases originated from other Vibrio sp., the VMC did not hydrolyze the casein. The proteolytic activity was critically decreased when the VMC was treated with metal chelating reagents, such as EDTA, 2,2-bipyridine, and 1, 10-phenanthroline. In particular, the 71 kDa VMC exhibited the hemagglutinating activity against human erythrocyte. As the purified VMC was treated with $CuCl_2$ and $NiCl_2$ for the chemical modification of metal binding, the proteolytic activity and hemagglutinating activity were profoundly influenced. The multialignment analysis made on the reported Vibrio metalloproteases showed the difference of amino acid sequence similarity between the two distinctive classes of Vibrio metalloproteases.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.1894-1901
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• 2015

A novel sulfatase gene, ary423 (1,536 bp ORF), encoding a protein of 511 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 56 kDa, was identified from Flammeovirga pacifica, which was isolated from deep-sea sediments of west Pacific Ocean. Amino acid sequence analysis revealed that Ary423 possessed a conserved C-X-A-X-R motif, which was recognized as the sulfatase signature. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that Ary423 belonged to arylsulfatases. After heterologous expression in Escherichia coli cells, the recombinant Ary423 was purified with a Ni⁺ affinity column, and was shown to be highly active at a broad range of temperatures from 30° to 70℃, with maximum activity at 40℃. Furthermore, recombinant Ary423 retained more than 70% and 40% of its maximum activity after 12 h of incubation at 50℃ and 60℃, respectively, exhibiting good thermostability at high temperatures. The optimal pH for Ary423 was determined to be 8.0 and the activity of Ary423 could be slightly enhanced by Mg²⁺. The recombinant enzyme could hydrolyze sulfate ester bonds in p-nitrophenyl sulfate (NPS) and Asparagus crude polysaccharides with a specific activity of 64.8 U/mg and 25.4 U/mg, respectively. These favorable properties could make Ary423 attractive for application in the desulfating process of agar production.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1476-1484
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• 2015

Three endoxylanase-encoding genes from the moderately themophilic chemoorganotrophic bacterium Melioribacter roseus were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Genes xyl2091 (Mros_2091) and xyl2495 (Mros_2495) encode GH10 family hydrolases, whereas xyl2090 (Mros_2090) represents the GH30 family. In addition to catalytic domains, Xyl2090 and Xyl2091 contain carbohydrate-binding modules that could facilitate their binding to xylans and Por sorting domains associated with the sorting of proteins from the periplasm to the outer membrane, where they are covalently attached. Recombinant endoxylanase Xyl2495 exhibited a high specific activity of 1,920 U/mg on birchwood xylan at 40℃. It is active at low temperatures, exhibiting more than 30% of the maximal activity even at 0℃. Endoxylanases Xyl2090 and Xyl2091 have lower specific activities but higher temperature optima at 80℃ and 65℃, respectively. Analysis of xylan hydrolysis products revealed that Xyl2090 generates xylo-oligosaccharides longer than xylopentaose. Xylose and xylobiose are the major products of xylan hydrolysis by the recombinant Xyl2091 and Xyl2495. No activity against cellulose was observed for all enzymes. The presence of three xylanases ensures efficient xylan hydrolysis by M. roseus. The highly processive "free" endoxylanase Xyl2495 could hydrolyze xylan under moderate temperatures. Xylan hydrolysis at elevated temperatures could be accomplished by concerted action of two cell-bound xylanases; Xyl2090 that probably degrades xylans to long xylo-oligosaccharides, and Xyl2091 hydrolyzing them to xylose and xylobiose. The new endoxylanases could be useful for saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass in biofuels production, bleaching of paper pulp, and obtaining low molecular weight xylooligosaccharides.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.1445-1452
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• 2008

An open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative epoxide hydrolase (EHase) was identified by analyzing the genome sequence of Sphingophyxis alaskensis. The EHase gene (seh) was cloned and expressed in E. coli. To facilitate purification, the gene was fused in-frame to 6$\times$ histidine at the C-terminus. The recombinant EHase (rSEH) was highly soluble and could be purified to apparent homogeneity by one step of metal affinity chromatography. The purified SEH displayed hydrolyzing activities toward various epoxides such as styrene oxide, glycidyl phenyl ether, epoxyhexane, epoxybutane, epichlorohydrin, and epifluorohydrin. The optimum activity toward styrene oxide was observed at pH 6.5 and $35^{\circ}C$. The purified SEH showed a cold-adapted property, displaying more than 40% of activity at low temperature of $10^{\circ}C$ compared with the optimum activity. Despite the catalytic efficiency, the purified SEH did not hydrolyze various epoxides enantioselectively. $K_m$ and $k_{cat}$ of SEH toward (R)-styrene oxide were calculated as 4$\pm$0.3 mM and 7.42$s^{-1}$ respectively, whereas $K_m$ and $k_{cat}$ of SEH toward (S)-styrene oxide were 5.25$\pm$0.3 mM and 10.08$s^{-1}$ respectively.