血红蛋白基因在枯草芽孢杆菌中的表达及其作用的研究

革兰氏阴性菌Ｖｉｔｒｅｏｓｃｉｌｌａ的血红蛋白与氧结合力强,能降低该菌需氧量。将该血红蛋白的结构基因（Ｖｇｂ）连接到枯草杆菌质粒ｐＡＫ４的β－内酰胺酶基因（ｂｌａ）启动子下（框架正确）,构建了重组质粒ｐＡＶ,并将此质粒先转化至枯草杆菌ＤＢ１０４,继而又转化到枯草杆菌碱性蛋白酶工程菌Ｇ３３１和产木聚糖酶枯草杆菌Ｂ５３。经酶切和电泳分析显示转化的质粒ＤＮＡ含有大小与Ｖｇｂ相同的电泳带,又经非放射性同位     

Peptide ligands that bind selectively to spores of Bacillus subtilis and closely related species

As part of an effort to develop detectors for selected species of bacterial spores, we screened phage display peptide libraries for 7- and 12-mer peptides that bind tightly to spores of Bacillus subtilis. All of the peptides isolated contained the sequence Asn-His-Phe-Leu at the amino terminus and exhibited clear preferences for other amino acids, especially Pro, at positions 5 to 7. We demonstrated that the sequence Asn-His-Phe-Leu-Pro (but not Asn-His-Phe-Leu) was sufficient for tight spore binding. We observed equal 7-mer peptide binding to spores of B. subtilis and its most closely related species, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, and slightly weaker binding to spores of the closely related species Bacillus globigii. These three species comprise one branch on the Bacillus phylogenetic tree. We did not detect peptide binding to spores of several Bacillus species located on adjacent and nearby branches of the phylogenetic tree nor to vegetative cells of B. subtilis. The sequence Asn-His-Phe-Leu-Pro was used to identify B. subtilis proteins that may employ this peptide for docking to the outer surface of the forespore during spore coat assembly and/or maturation. One such protein, SpsC, appears to be involved in the synthesis of polysaccharide on the spore coat. SpsC contains the Asn-His-Phe-Leu-Pro sequence at positions 6 to 10, and the first five residues of SpsC apparently must be removed to allow spore binding. Finally, we discuss the use of peptide ligands for bacterial detection and the use of short peptide sequences for targeting proteins during spore formation.     

Roles of Bacillus subtilis DprA and SsbA in RecA-mediated Genetic Recombination

Bacillus subtilis competence-induced RecA, SsbA, SsbB, and DprA are required to internalize and to recombine single-stranded (ss) DNA with homologous resident duplex. RecA, in the ATP·Mg²⁺-bound form (RecA·ATP), can nucleate and form filament onto ssDNA but is inactive to catalyze DNA recombination. We report that SsbA or SsbB bound to ssDNA blocks the RecA filament formation and fails to activate recombination. DprA facilitates RecA filamentation; however, the filaments cannot engage in DNA recombination. When ssDNA was preincubated with SsbA, but not SsbB, DprA was able to activate DNA strand exchange dependent on RecA·ATP. This work demonstrates that RecA·ATP, in concert with SsbA and DprA, catalyzes DNA strand exchange, and SsbB is an accessory factor in the reaction. In contrast, RecA·dATP efficiently catalyzes strand exchange even in the absence of single-stranded binding proteins or DprA, and addition of the accessory factors marginally improved it. We proposed that the RecA-bound nucleotide (ATP and to a lesser extent dATP) might dictate the requirement for accessory factors.