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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2004, p. 798-803, Vol. 70, No. 2
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.2.798-803.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Characterization and Development of Two Reporter Gene Systems for Clostridium acetobutylicum

Lothar Feustel, Stephan Nakotte, and Peter Dürre^*

Mikrobiologie und Biotechnologie, Universität Ulm, 89069 Ulm, Germany

Received 5 August 2003/ Accepted 28 October 2003

The use of lacZ from Thermoanaerobacterium thermosulfurigenes (encoding ß-galactosidase) and lucB from Photinus pyralis (encoding luciferase) as reporter genes in Clostridium acetobutylicum was analyzed with promoters of genes required for solventogenesis and acidogenesis. Both systems proved to be well suited and allowed the detection of differences in promoter strength at least up to 100-fold. The luciferase assay could be performed much faster and comes close to online measurement. Resequencing of lacZ revealed a sequence error in the original database entry, which resulted in ß-galactosidase with an additional 31 amino acids. Cutting off part of the gene encoding this C terminus resulted in decreased enzyme activity. The lacZ reporter data showed that bdhA (encoding butanol dehydrogenase A) is expressed during the early growth phase, followed by sol (encoding butyraldehyde/butanol dehydrogenase E and coenzyme A transferase) and bdhB (encoding butanol dehydrogenase B) expression. adc (encoding acetoacetate decarboxylase) was also induced early. There is about a 100-fold difference in expression between adc and bdhB (higher) and bdhA and the sol operon (lower). The lucB reporter activity could be increased 10-fold by the addition of ATP to the assay. Washing of the cells proved to be important in order to prevent a red shift of bioluminescence in an acidic environment (for reliable data). lucB reporter measurements confirmed the expression pattern of the sol and ptb-buk (encoding phosphotransbutyrylase and butyrate kinase) operons as determined by the lacZ reporter and showed that the expression level from the ptb promoter is 59-fold higher than that from the sol operon promoter.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Mikrobiologie und Biotechnologie, Universität Ulm, 89069 Ulm, Germany. Phone: 49-731-50-22710. Fax: 49-731-50-22719. E-mail: peter.duerre{at}biologie.uni-ulm.de.

Present address: Liponova GmbH, 30625 Hannover, Germany.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2004, p. 798-803, Vol. 70, No. 2
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.2.798-803.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Alsaker, K. V., Papoutsakis, E. T. (2005). Transcriptional Program of Early Sporulation and Stationary-Phase Events in Clostridium acetobutylicum. J. Bacteriol. 187: 7103-7118 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Scotcher, M. C., Rudolph, F. B., Bennett, G. N. (2005). Expression of abrB310 and sinR, and Effects of Decreased abrB310 Expression on the Transition from Acidogenesis to Solventogenesis, in Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71: 1987-1995 [Abstract] [Full Text]