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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2001, p. 1253-1261, Vol. 67, No. 3
Department of
Microbiology1 and Department of Food
Science,2 Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
Received 29 September 2000/Accepted 8 January 2001
The gusA gene, encoding a new
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.3.1253-1261.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Identification and Cloning of gusA, Encoding
a New
-Glucuronidase from Lactobacillus gasseri
ADH
-glucuronidase enzyme, has been cloned from Lactobacillus
gasseri ADH. This is the first report of a
-glucuronidase gene
cloned from a bacterial source other than Escherichia coli.
A plasmid library of L. gasseri chromosomal DNA was
screened for complementation of an E. coli gus mutant. Two
overlapping clones that restored
-glucuronidase activity in the
mutant strain were sequenced and revealed three complete and two
partial open reading frames. The largest open reading frame, spanning
1,797 bp, encodes a 597-amino-acid protein that shows 39% identity to
-glucuronidase (GusA) of E. coli K-12 (EC 3.2.1.31). The
other two complete open reading frames, which are arranged to be
separately transcribed, encode a putative bile salt hydrolase and a
putative protein of unknown function with similarities to MerR-type
regulatory proteins. Overexpression of GusA was achieved in a
-glucuronidase-negative L. gasseri strain by expressing
the gusA gene, subcloned onto a low-copy-number shuttle
vector, from the strong Lactobacillus P6 promoter. GusA was
also expressed in E. coli from a pET expression system.
Preliminary characterization of the GusA protein from crude cell
extracts revealed that the enzyme was active across an acidic pH range and a broad temperature range. An analysis of other lactobacilli identified
-glucuronidase activity and gusA homologs in
other L. gasseri isolates but not in other
Lactobacillus species tested.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Food Science, North Carolina State University, Box 7624, Raleigh, NC 27695. Phone: (919) 515-2972. Fax: (919) 515-7124. E-mail:
klaenhammer{at}ncsu.edu.
Paper no. FSR-00-26 of the Journal Series of the Department of Food
Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7624.
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