qa-3稀有密码子和mRNA结构改造及其在大肠杆菌中的高效表达

奎尼酸脱氢酶的高表达是奎尼酸生物合成的代谢工程研究的关键和基础。粗糙脉孢菌基因组中编码奎尼酸脱氢酶的基因qa-3在大肠杆菌中不表达,根据大肠杆菌密码子使用频率分析qa-3基因,发现有27个稀有密码子,其中编码Arg(R)的有8个,编码Gly(G)的有9个。编码精氨酸的AGG(AGA)两个稀有密码子紧密相连(R区),另外还有个相对比较集中的GGG密集区G区。进一步通过计算机分析其qa-3基因mRNA二级结构,发现改变5′和3′末端个别碱基对其二级结构的影响很大,可以使mRNA的自由能由野生型的-374.3kJ/mol降低到最小-80.5kJ/mol,从而大大减少mRNA两端二级结构的产生,而仅仅改变R区和G区的稀有密码子自由能变化很小。通过对该基因密码子改造和优化5′和3′末端对其mRNA二级结构的影响,在大肠杆菌中表达真菌的基因qa-3,并测到了奎尼酸脱氢酶活性,为构建产奎尼酸工程菌株奠定基础。

The Changes of Rare Codon and mRNA Structure Accelerate Expression of qa-3 in Escherichia coli

The key and crucial step of metabolic engineering during quinic acid biosynthesize using shikimic acid pathway is high expression of quinate 5-dehydrogenase. The gene qa-3 which code quinate 5-dehydrogenase from Neurospora crassa doesn't express in Escherichia coli. By contrast with codon usage in Escherichia coli, there are 27 rare codons in qa-3, including eight AGG/AGA (Arg) and nine GGG (Gly). Two AGG are joined together (called box R) and some GGG codons are relative concentrate (called box G). Along with the secondary structure of mRNA analysed in computer, the free energy of mRNA changes a lot from -374.3 kJ/mol to least-80.5 kJ/mol when some bases in the end of qa-3 were transformed, and moreover, the change of free energy is quite small when only some bases in the box G and box R transformed. After the change of rare codon and optimization of some bases in the end, qa-3 was expression in E. coli and also the enzyme activity of quinate 5-dehydrogenase can be surveyed accurately. All the work above benefit the further research on producing quinic acid engineering bacterium.