Compilation of All Genes Encoding Two-component Phosphotransfer Signal Transducers in the Genome of Escherichia coli

Bacteria have devised sophisticated His-Asp phosphorelay signalingsystems for eliciting a variety of adaptive responses to theirenvironment, which are generally referred to as the "two-componentregulatory system." The widespread occurrence of the His-Aspphosphorelay signaling in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes impliesthat it is a powerful device for a wide variety of adaptiveresponses of cells to their environment. The two-component signaltransducers contain one or more of three common and characteristicphosphotransfer signaling domains, named the "transmitter, receiver,and histidine-containing phosphotransfer (HPt) domains." Therecently determined entire genomic sequence of Escherichia coliallowed us to compile systematically a complete list of genesencoding such two-component signal transduction proteins. Theresults of such an effort, made in this study, revealed thatat least 62 open reading frames(ORFs) were identified as putativemembers of the two-component signaltransducers in this singlespecies. Among them, 32 were identified as response regulatorand 23 were identified as orthodox sensory kinases. In addition,E. coli has five hybrid sensory kinases. The precise locationof each ORF was mapped on a physical map of the entire E. coligenome. All of these ORFs were then compiled and annotated extensively.     

Effect of rpoS mutations on stress-resistance and invasion of brain microvascular endothelial cells in Escherichia coli K1

Escherichia coli K1 strains are predominant in causing neonatal meningitis. We have shown that invasion of brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMEC) is a prerequisite for E. coli K1 crossing of the blood-brain barrier. BMEC invasion by E. coli K1 strain RS218, however, has been shown to be significantly greater with stationary-phase cultures than with exponential-phase cultures. Since RpoS participates in regulating stationary-phase gene expression, the present study examined a possible involvement of RpoS in E. coli K1 invasion of BMEC. We found that the cerebrospinal fluid isolates of E. coli K1 strains RS218 and IHE3034 have a nonsense mutation in their rpoS gene. Complementation with the E. coli K12 rpoS gene significantly increased the BMEC invasion of E. coli K1 strain IHE3034, but failed to significantly increase the invasion of another E. coli K1 strain RS218. Of interest, the recovery of E. coli K1 strains following environmental insults was 10-100-fold greater on Columbia blood agar than on LB agar, indicating that growing medium is important for viability of rpoS mutants after environmental insults. Taken together, our data suggest that the growth-phase-dependent E. coli K1 invasion of BMEC is affected by RpoS and other growth-phase-dependent regulatory mechanisms.     

大肠杆菌和酵母表达系统的研究进展

20世纪70年代以来,分子生物学及基因组学迅猛发展,其在生物及医学领域发挥着越来越重要的作用。在发酵工业中,分子生物学技术广泛应用于菌种的遗传改造和基因工程菌株的构建,以期提高发酵产物的产量并丰富发酵产物的类型。其中,利用原核及真核表达系统进行外源基因的扩增、表达以生产蛋白疫苗、核酸疫苗和酶制剂等是近十年来发酵工业的新兴领域。本文从表达载体和宿主菌改造两方面综述近些年来大肠杆菌及酵母表达系统的新进展与新技术。     

Acid shock proteins of Escherichia coli

Synthesis of total cellular proteins of Escherichia coli was studied after transfer of cultures from pH 6.9 to pH 4.3. Proteins induced by such an external pH shift down were identified by mono- and bi-dimensional electrophoresis. 30 to 45 min after an acid shift, a group of at least sixteen polypeptides was markedly induced. Four of these polypeptides corresponded to the well known heat shock proteins GroEL, DnaK, HtpG and HtpM. Their pH induction was RpoH-dependent. Three other pH-induced proteins were previously identified as stress proteins induced either by osmolarity or aerobiosis or low temperature (proteins 32 (defined in this paper), C70.0 and C62.7). Seven other proteins were specifically induced after an acid shift and were called acid shock proteins (ASP). The induction of one of these proteins was RpoH-dependent, whereas that of others was RpoH-independent.     

原核系统可溶性表达策略

获得大量目的蛋白的最简单最经济的方法是利用原核表达系统表达外源基因.但由于原核系统的自身特点,使所表达的蛋白常常形成无活性的包涵体.多年来世界各国的研究为解决这一问题尝试了多种方法.本简单介绍原核表达系统的特点及提高蛋白可溶性表达的常用方法.     

Characterization of Copper-Inducible Promoters Regulated by CpxA/CpxR in Escherichia coli

The copper stimulon in Escherichia coli consists of four regulons, the CueR-, CusS/CusR-, CpxA/CpxR-, and YedV/YedW regulons. E. coli mutants defective in cpxRA showed higher sensitivity to copper than the wild type. A total of 15 promoters were found to be induced in E. coli culture upon exposure to copper in a CpxA/CpxR-dependent manner. After gel-shift and DNase I foot-printing analyses, a conserved tandem repeat of pentanucleotide sequence, GTAAA(N)_4–8GTAAA, with a conserved A of 4-bp upstream of each pentamer, was identified to be the CpxR-binding site. The difference in the orientation and location of the CpxR box is discussed with respect to the regulation mechanism among CpxR-regulon genes.     

重组人胰激肽原酶在大肠杆菌中的表达

根据人胰激肽原酶的氨基酸序列,采用大肠杆菌偏爱密码子,设计合成目的基因片段约750 bp.将设计得到的片段连接到pET-22b(+)表达载体中并测序,将重组质粒转化到大肠杆菌Rosetta中进行诱导表达.将IPTG诱导表达的菌体进行SDS-PAGE电泳,在相对分子质量24 kD处可明显观察到高表达带,主要以包涵体形式存在,质量分数可达21.6％,进一步测得蛋白活性为2.27 nmol/s.利用MALDI串联飞行时间质谱(MALDI-TOF-MS/MS)鉴定蛋白,蛋白得分106,大于可信得分83(P ＜0.05),确定了蛋白一级结构的正确性.     

人Hepcidin融合表达载体的构建及在大肠杆菌中的表达

为了在大肠杆菌中表达生产hepcidin,根据大肠杆菌密码子偏好性,化学合成了人hepcidin的基因序列,并构建了hepcidin的融合表达载体pET -hpc。pET- hpc在大肠杆菌BL2 1 (DE3)中表达的hepcidin融合蛋白以包涵体形式存在,其N端带有 6个组氨酸。通过优化诱导表达条件,该融合蛋白表达水平显著提高,占总蛋白的 2 5 . 2 %。表达的包涵体经 1 %TritonX 1 0 0洗涤后溶于8mol L尿素,在变性条件下采用金属螯合层析进行纯化,所得融合蛋白纯度大于 95 %。     

大肠杆菌RNA聚合酶σ亚基基因的表达及表达产物的分离纯化

将2种表达质拉pEGMD（含rpoD基因）和pETF（含rpoS基因）转化到BL21（DE3）菌株中,培养菌体。破碎细胞,用盐酸抓溶解包含体,经DEAE－纤维素柱层析,SDS－PAGE检测可得纯化σ的蛋白。通过紫外分光光度法测定蛋白浓度,实验表明σ38蛋白的得率为菌体温重的0．27％,σ70蛋白的得率为菌体湿重的0．06％。     

大肠杆菌TorS/TorR二组分体应答蛋白TorR对DNA复制起始的影响

二组分体作为一种信号转导系统在细菌中普遍存在,能够感知外界环境变化并做出应答。细菌中CckA/CtrA、ArcA/ArcB和PhoP/PhoQ二组分体与DNA复制起始和细胞分裂相关,但目前还未见TorS/TorR二组分体对细胞周期及DNA复制影响的相关报道。大肠杆菌TorS/TorR二组分体能够监测细胞周围氧化三甲胺(Trimethylamine oxide, TMAO)的浓度变化,但其是否影响DNA复制起始呢?文章利用流式细胞仪检测了ΔtorS和ΔtorR突变体菌株的复制式样。结果发现,ΔtorS突变菌株每个细胞复制起始原点数目和倍增时间与野生型细胞一致,而ΔtorR突变菌株每个细胞复制起始原点数目多于野生型细胞,说明复制起始发生时间比野生型细胞早。但是过表达TorR蛋白或者共同表达TorS和TorR蛋白都不能使ΔtorR突变体表型恢复为野生型表型。而在野生型和ΔtorR突变细胞中过表达SufD蛋白能使复制起始提早发生,在ΔtorR和ΔsufD双突变细胞中复制起始延迟。所以,TorR可能通过改变sufD基因的表达来间接影响染色体复制起始。     

Isolation of a Mutant Auxotrophic for L-Alanine and Identification of Three Major Aminotransferases That Synthesize L-Alanine in Escherichia coli

For Escherichia coli, it has been assumed that L-alanine is synthesized by alanine-valine transaminase (AvtA) in conjunction with an unknown alanine aminotransferase(s). We isolated alanine auxotrophs from a prototrophic double mutant deficient in AvtA and YfbQ, a novel alanine aminotransferase, by chemical mutagenesis. A shotgun cloning experiment identified two genes, uncharacterized yfdZ and serC, that complemented the alanine auxotrophy. When the yfdZ- or serC-mutation was introduced into the double mutant, one triple mutant (avtA yfbQ yfdZ) showed alanine auxotrophy, and another (avtA yfbQ serC), prototrophy. In addition, we found that four independent alanine auxotrophs possessed a point mutation in yfdZ but not in serC. We also found that yfdZ expression was induced in minimal medium. Furthermore, yfbQ-bearing plasmid conferred the ability to excrete alanine on the mutant lacking D-amino acid dehydrogenase-encoding gene, dadA. From these results, we concluded that E. coli synthesizes L-alanine by means of three aminotransferases, YfbQ, YfdZ, and AvtA.     

植物交替氧化酶(AOX)在大肠杆菌中优化表达

植物交替氧化酶(Alternative Oxidase,AOX)位于高等植物线粒体内膜,从细胞色素途径的辅酶Q分岔,催化4个电子还原氧分子形成水的另一终端氧化酶。分离纯化有活性的AOX比较困难。本文研究AOX原核表达,选择pFLAG-1分泌表达载体,用异丙基硫代-β-D-半乳糖苷(IPTG)诱导AOX优化表达,pFLAG-1-AOX大肠杆菌优化表达条件为:宿主DH5α、温度37℃、细胞密度OD600=0.6、IPTG浓度0.2mmol/L,诱导后60min收获细胞;获得少量可溶的细胞外周质AOX和大量不溶的AOX,为深入研究AOX打下基础,同时为研究膜蛋白原核表达提供依据。     

蓝藻的二元信号传导系统

二元系统是细菌中主要的信号传导途径 ,磷酸根转移介导的信号途径使细胞得以感受各种环境刺激并产生应答。组氨酸蛋白质激酶的自动磷酸化将磷酸基团传给反应调节蛋白 ,反过来作为分子开关控制不同的效应物活性。蓝藻是地球上最早出现的光合自养原核生物 ,在长期的生物进化过程中 ,它们发展了一系列独特的形态和生理代谢机制 ,使其能在各种不同生境中生长、繁殖和扩增。研究蓝藻信号传导途径为阐明其高度的环境适应性提供了理论基础。     

纳豆激酶基因在大肠杆菌中活性表达的比较研究

实现纳豆激酶基因 (nattokinasegene)在大肠杆菌中高活性表达 ,并说明前肽 ( pro序列 )对纳豆激酶的活性表达必不可少。以纳豆芽孢杆菌基因组DNA为模板 ,采用PCR方法分别扩增编码信号肽、前肽及成熟肽的序列 ( pre pro NK)和编码前肽、成熟肽的序列 (pro NK) ,构建了大肠杆菌表达质粒 pTYB1 0 1 ,pTYB1 0 2 ,转化大肠杆菌ER2 5 66。在IPTG诱导下 ,分别在 1 5℃ ( 1 4h) ,3 0℃ ( 3h)和 3 7℃ ( 2h)培养。结果可见 ,pTYB1 0 2能表达有活性的纳豆激酶。SDS PAGE表明 ,1 5℃表达杂蛋白更少。薄层扫描显示表达的纳豆激酶占菌体总蛋白的 3 0 %以上。成功制备了表达纳豆激酶的工程菌。     

Identification of novel virulence-associated loci in uropathogenic Escherichia coli by suppression subtractive hybridization

To identify novel virulence-associated genes in uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) strains, a suppression subtractive hybridization strategy was applied to genomic DNA of four clinical UPEC isolates from patients suffering from cystitis or pyelonephritis. The genomic DNA of four isolates (tester strains) was subtracted from the DNA of two different driver strains, the well characterized UPEC strain CFT073 and the non-pathogenic E. coli K-12 strain MG1655. We determined the sequence of 172 tester strain-specific DNA fragments, 86 of which revealed only low or no homology to nucleotide sequences of public databases. We further determined the virulence association of the 86 novel DNA fragments using each DNA fragment as a probe in Southern hybridizations of a reference strain collection consisting of 60 extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli isolates, and 40 non-virulent E. coli strains from stool samples. From this, 19 novel DNA fragments were demonstrated to be significantly associated with virulent strains and thus may represent new virulence traits. Our results support the idea of a considerable genetic variability among UPEC strains and suggest that novel genomic determinants might contribute to virulence of UPEC.     

致肾盂肾炎大肠杆菌的毒力因子和调控

致肾盂肾炎大肠杆菌引起人的尿路感染,它的毒力因子包括表面毒力因子和分泌毒力因子两大类。表面毒力因子包括菌毛、鞭毛、黏附素和多糖类物质,主要在细菌的侵染过程中起作用。分泌毒力因子主要是溶血素、细胞毒性坏死因子等毒素蛋白,主要对宿主细胞产生毒力作用。本文简要综述致肾盂肾炎大肠杆菌毒力因子分泌所需要的5种分泌机制,并论及毒力因子的宏观调控和影响毒力调控的因素。