• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.151-157
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• 1990

The maximum nitrogen fixation activity of the associative, microaerobic and acid tolerant bacteria, Azospirillum amazonense Kp1 was obtained with 0.2Kpa of $O_{2}$ and showed a reversible inhibition by the higher concentrations. Ammonium treatment caused a gradual inhibition of the activity up to 350mM. The nitrogenase systems were purified by gradient chromatography on DEAE-52 cellulose, heat treatment and preparative PAGE. The MoFe protein showed molecular weight of 210,000 including two nonidentical subunits with apparent molecular weights of 55,000 and 50,000 and an isoelectricpoint of 5.2 and contained 2, 24 and 28 atoms of Mo, Fe and acid labile S per molecule. The Fe protein revealed molecular weight of 66,000 including two types of subunits with molecular weights of 35,000 and 31,000 and an isoelectric point of 4.6, and contained 4 atoms of Fe and 6 atoms of S per molecule. The maximum specific nitrogenase activity attained 2,200 and 1,700nM $C_2H_4mg^{-1} min^{-1}$, respectively for MoFe and Fe proteins at pH7 and $35^{\circ}C$. The activity was lost after 10 and 30 days under the cold room ($4^{\circ}C$) condition for Fe and MoFe proteins, respectively.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.431-437
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• 1996

The nar promoter of Escherichta coli, which is maximally induced under anaerobic conditions in the presence of nitrate, was characterized to see whether the nar promoter cloned onto pBR322 can be used as an expression promoter. The modified nar promoter, in which several bases in the -10 region was mutated to the consensus sequence by site-directed mutagenesis, was characterized in E. coli, on which chromosome the fnr gene affecting expression of the nar promoter according to dissolved oxygen level was mutated. The E. coli lacZ gene was used as a reporter gene. The following effects were investigated to find optimal conditions to induce the modified nar promoter: induction methods, optimal nitrate concentrations, the amount of ${\beta}$-galactosidase expressed at the different growth conditions, and induction characteristics. The following results were obtained from the experiments : expression of ${\beta}$-galactosidase from the modified nar promoter was not affected much by nitrate concentrations. The maximal specific ${\beta}$-galactosidase activity was obtained when E. coli was grown under aerobic conditions, and then the modified nar promoter was induced at OD600=2.2 under microaerobic conditions (DO=1∼2%), under which conditions the maximal specific ${\beta}$-galactosidase activity was 13,000 Miller units. However, the specific ${\beta}$-galactosidase activity was approximately 6,000 Miller units even before the modified nar promoter was induced. Therefore, the modified nar promoter seemed to be useful when the cloned gene wants to be expressed in E. coli constitutively.