Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2001, p. 1025-1029, Vol. 67, No. 3
New England Biolabs, Inc., Beverly,
Massachusetts 01915,1 and Boston
Biomedical Research Institute, Watertown, Massachusetts
024722
Received 24 August 2000/Accepted 13 November 2000
Protein splicing in trans has been demonstrated both in
vivo and in vitro by biochemical and immunological analyses, but in vivo production of a functional protein by trans-splicing
has not been reported previously. In this study, we used the DnaE intein from Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803, which
presumably reconstitutes functional DnaE protein by
trans-splicing in vivo, to produce functional
herbicide-resistant acetolactate synthase II (ALSII) from two unlinked
gene fragments in Escherichia coli. The gene for
herbicide-resistant ALSII was fused in frame to DnaE intein segments
capable of promoting protein splicing in trans and was
expressed from two compatible plasmids as two unlinked fragments.
Cotransformation of E. coli with the two plasmids led to
production of a functional enzyme that conferred herbicide resistance
to the host E. coli cells. These results demonstrate the
feasibility of expressing functional genes from two unlinked DNA loci
and provide a model for the design of nontransferable transgenes in plants.
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.3.1025-1029.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Protein trans-Splicing To Produce
Herbicide-Resistant Acetolactate Synthase
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: New England
Biolabs, Inc., 32 Tozer Road, Beverly, MA 01915. Phone: (978) 927-5054. Fax: (978) 921-1350. E-mail: xum{at}neb.com.
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