中华根瘤菌Sinorhizobium sp.1128自体诱导物合成酶基因的克隆及对生理功能的影响

[目的]从中华根瘤菌Sinorhizobium sp.1128中克隆自体诱导物合成酶基因,从而研究该基因在Sinorhizobium sp.1128群体感应系统中的作用.[方法]利用基因序列同源性比对以及分子克隆的方法,从中华根瘤菌Sinorhizobium sp.1128中克隆自体诱导物合成酶基因;利用大肠杆菌异源表达、C18反相薄层层析(TLC)的方法研究该基因的特性;通过中间片段融合的方法缺失该基因,并通过结瘤实验研究该基因对Sinorhizobium sp.1128生理功能的影响.[结果]以草木樨中华根瘤菌Sinorhizobium medicae WSM419自体诱导物合成酶基因Smed_1560序列设计引物,通过PCR扩增在Sinorhizobium sp.1128中寻找到一新的自体诱导物合成基因,命名为traI2.该基因在大肠杆菌Escherichia coli DH5α中表达后能产生两种自体诱导物分子.在Sinorhizobium sp.1128中将该基因缺失,自体诱导物活性下降;回复突变后,自体诱导物活性得到恢复,结瘤实验结果表明该基因能影响根瘤菌的结瘤效率.[结论]中华根瘤菌Sinorhizobium sp.1128群体感应系统是一个复杂的交互系统,它对结瘤的生理功能具有一定的影响.     

根瘤菌与群体感应

细菌在高细胞密度下可以产生群体感应信号分子,调控细菌相关基因的表达,这种信号分子被称为自体诱导物。酰基高丝氨酸内酯类化合物(acyl-HSLs)是在根瘤菌中广泛存在的一类自体诱导物,该群体感应系统与根瘤菌和植物的共生作用密切相关。本文概述了AHLs介导的群体感应系统的组成及调控机制和不同根瘤菌中群体感应调节对根瘤菌生理行为及共生固氮的影响。     

中华根瘤菌自体诱导物合成酶基因的筛选及其在大肠杆菌中的表达

通过携带有mariner转座子的质粒pJZ290随机插入诱变中华根瘤菌(Sinorhizobium meliloti)建立突变子文库,并从中筛选到自体诱导物(autoinducer,AI)部分缺失突变株YW1。Arbitrary PCR扩增、DNA测序得到YW1基因组DNA中mariner转座子两端侧翼序列,经DNA序列拼接在GenBank上进行同源性分析后获得一个621bp的完整的开放阅读框(ORF),该ORF编码的酶具有206个氨基酸,与草木樨中华根瘤菌(Sinorhizobium medicae)WSM419的LuxI类自体诱导物合成酶(autoinducer synthase)TraI的同源性高达99%。因此,也将该基因命名为traⅠ。将该基因克隆到广宿主范围表达载体pYC12并在大肠杆菌Escherichia coli DH5α中成功表达,C18反相薄层层析(TLC)在阳性重组子培养上清中检测到四种自体诱导物分子,其中的两种正是AI缺失突变株YW1所缺失的AI,这些结果表明该traⅠ基因在苜蓿中华根瘤菌负责合成两种自体诱导物分子,为进一步研究其群体感应系统奠定了理论基础。     

华癸根瘤菌中自体诱导物的初步研究

群体感应 (Quorumsensing)是细菌通过产生可扩散的小分子量自体诱导物信号分子感知细胞群体密度变化 ,进行基因表达调控的生理行为。将根癌土壤杆菌 (Agrobacteriumtumefaciens)构建为超量表达群体感应调节蛋白TraR的检测菌株JZA1,试验证明该检测菌株能检测纳摩尔浓度的自体诱导物 ,利用该菌株对 3株不同华癸根瘤菌(Mesorhizobiumhuakuii)进行自体诱导物活性检测 ,发现该 3株华癸根瘤菌均能产生自体诱导物 ,其表达量与菌体密度成正相关 ,但 3株菌在相同培养条件下自体诱导物的表达量存在差异 ,结果表明自体诱导物在种内水平上存在一定的多样性 ;同时发现高pH条件能大大降低自体诱导物的稳定性 ,为进一步研究群体感应调节在共生固氮上的作用提供理论及实践依据     

细菌中的群体感应

群体感应(quorum sensing)是细菌根据细胞密度变化进行基因表达调控的一种生理行为。具有群体感应的细菌能产生并释放一种被称为自体诱导物(autoinducer)的信号分子,它随着细胞密度增加而同步增加。当自体诱导物积累到一定浓度时会改变细菌特定基因的表达。革兰氏阳性及阴性细菌通过群体感应与周围环境进行信息交流,从而改变细菌的一系列生理活性,这些细菌的生理特性包括共生、细菌毒性、竞争、接合、抗生素的产生、运动性、孢子及生物膜的形成。这种信号传递方式可能对低等的细胞进一步进化,并形成高等的生物体有重要作用。细菌中群体感应系统的进化可能是多细胞体形成的早期阶段。     

细菌群体感应信号分子与抑制剂研究进展

具有群体感应系统的细菌通过相互交换一种自动诱导（autoinducer）信号分子来实现彼此问的信息交流。当信号分子积累到一定浓度时会改变细菌特定基因的表达,如生物膜的形成、生物发光行为、毒性基因的表达、孢子的形成等。近年来,人们发现了多种天然或者人工合成的群体感应抑制剂,可以干扰群感系统的信息回路。本文系统地阐述了细菌群体感应信息系统的划分、自体诱导分子及其抑制剂的研究进展。     

百脉根液泡膜H+-PPase基因的cDNA克隆与分析

采用EST电子克隆和RACE技术从豆科模式植物百脉根中克隆到一个液泡膜H -PPase基因的cDNA,命名为LcVP1。该cDNA长为2962bp,含2304bp的完整开放阅读框,编码767个氨基酸,其推测的氨基酸序列与绿豆、拟南芥等I类液泡膜H -PPase的氨基酸序列同源性在80%以上,且有很高的功能区段保守性。该cDNA序列已提交GenBank,登录号为EF440187。半定量RT-PCR表明,LcVP1在根、茎、叶中的表达不同,叶中表达最多,茎中最少。     

百脉根Rac1蛋白多克隆抗体的制备与应用

Rop基因在豆科植物与根瘤菌共生互作过程中发挥重要作用。该研究以模式豆科植物百脉根根系cDNA为模板,扩增得到百脉根的1个Rop基因（Rac1）,将其连接到原核表达载体pET28a,转化获得Rac1基因的大肠杆菌BL21（DE3）工程菌。优化Rac1蛋白诱导表达条件,亲和吸附法纯化蛋白,制备Rac1多克隆抗体,并应用该抗体检测Rac1过表达转基因植株中Rac1蛋白的表达水平。结果显示：（1）经双酶切和测序鉴定,成功构建pET28a Rac1原核表达载体。（2）Rac1蛋白的最佳诱导表达条件为：IPTG浓度0.1 mmol/L、温度20 ℃、时间6 h,重组蛋白以可溶形式高效表达;纯化的Rac1蛋白经SDS PAGE检测,目的条带大小为25 kD左右,且条带清晰、单一无杂带。（3）Western blotting显示,制备的多克隆抗体能特异识别其对应的抗原,且效价较高。（4）通过农杆菌介导的毛根转化法获得Rac1过表达植株的阳性毛根,提取阳性毛根总蛋白,Western blotting分析显示过表达植株中Rac1蛋白表达量显著高于空载体对照,从翻译水平证实过表达载体构建的有效性。该研究制备的Rac1多克隆抗体能够高效特异地检测来源于百脉根体内的Rac1蛋白,这将为进一步开展Rac1在共生信号转导途径中的生物学功能研究提供有利工具。     

费氏中华根瘤菌与耐盐有关基因的克隆及其在大肠杆菌中的表达

费氏中华根瘤菌（Sinorhizobium fredii）RT19与耐盐有关的4.4kb DNA片段含有3个相间的开放阅读框,经亚克隆及功能检测,证实其中的ORF2与耐盐有关,将ORF2分别克隆到表达载体pTHioHisA、B和C上,得到3个重组质粒pGA、pGB和pGC,转化大肠杆菌（escherichia coli）5α。经IPTG诱导后和作SDS－PAGE分析,发现只有pGC编码的融合蛋白获得了表达,其分子量为53kDa。恰好是trxA基因编码的硫氧还蛋白与推测的蛋白质分子量之和。Westerm印迹证实,表达的蛋白质是trxA基因和目的基因编码的。     

FMDV vp1基因在豆科牧草百脉根中的转化与表达

通过根癌农杆菌介导法,将FMDV阿克苏(Akesu/O/58)株结构基因vp1转化豆科牧草百脉根子叶和子叶柄,其愈伤、芽和生根等过程经50 mg/L Kan筛选后,获得Kan抗性百脉根植株。对抗性植株进行vp1基因的PCR、RT-PCR检测和VP1蛋白的Western-blotting杂交。结果表明:vp1基因转入百脉根中,检测有转录活性;目的蛋白获得了正确表达;扩繁和移栽后获得了批量转基因百脉根,为下一阶段的动物试验提供了实验材料。     

A Large Scale Analysis of Protein-Protein Interactions in the Nitrogen-fixing Bacterium Mesorhizobium loti

Global viewing of protein–protein interactions (PPIs)is a useful way to assign biological roles to large numbersof proteins predicted by complete genome sequence. Here, wesystematically analyzed PPIs in the nitrogen-fixing soil bacteriumMesorhizobium loti using a modified high-throughput yeast two-hybridsystem. The aims of this study are primarily on the providingfunctional clues to M. loti proteins that are relevant to symbioticnitrogen fixation and conserved in other rhizobium species,especially proteins with regulatory functions and unannotatedproteins. By the screening of 1542 genes as bait, 3121 independentinteractions involving 1804 proteins (24% of the total proteincoding genes) were identified and each interaction was evaluatedusing an interaction generality (IG) measure and the generalfeatures of the interacting partners. Most PPIs detected inthis study are novel interactions revealing potential functionalrelationships between genes for symbiotic nitrogen fixationand signal transduction. Furthermore, we have predicted theputative functions of unannotated proteins through their interactionswith known proteins. The results described here represent newinsight into protein network of M. loti and provide useful experimentalclues to elucidate the biological function of rhizobial genesthat can not be assigned directly from their genomic sequence.     

Differences between subcultures of the Mesorhizobium loti type strain from different culture collections

Because of differences in the reported 16S rRNA gene sequence of the Mesorhizobium loti type strain available from different culture collections, we collected different subcultures of this strain and compared them by 16S rDNA sequencing, SDS-PAGE of whole-cell protein extracts and RAPD-PCR. Our results indicate that the 16S rDNA sequence differences can be explained by the presence of two different organisms in one of the subcultures. In addition, even for subcultures of the type strain that had identical 16S rDNA sequences, small differences could be observed in the protein profiles and in the RAPD-PCR patterns. These latter observations indicate that maintenance procedures necessary for long-term preservation by freeze-drying can cause subcultures of the same original strain to undergo changes, effectively leading to different fingerprints even though 16S rDNA sequences remain identical.     

Novel insight into the secretory expression of recombinant enzymes in Escherichia coli

The secretory expression of recombinant enzymes in Escherichia coli has generally been a challenging task. In the present study, we investigated the expression of the extracellular enzyme cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase in E. coli. Our results indicated that when the overexpressed pre-proteins were not translocated across the inner membrane in a timely manner, they aggregated near the inner side of the E. coli inner membrane, resulting in the formation of insoluble inclusion bodies, which eventually blocked the pre-protein translocation channels and subsequently impeded further protein secretion. This mechanism suggests that for the efficient production of extracellular enzymes in E. coli, it is very important to maintain a balance between the rate of pre-protein synthesis and translocation, which can be achieved by altering the cultivation process. Our findings provide novel insight into the secretory expression of extracellular enzymes and may shed light on the further development of new strategies for extracellular protein production in E. coli.     

大肠杆菌高效表达重组蛋白策略

大肠杆菌表达系统是基因表达技术中发展最早和目前应用最广的经典表达系统。利用该系统表达重组蛋白具有许多优越性,但其表达效率受诸多因素的影响。本文综述国内外利用大肠杆菌表达系统高效表达外源蛋白的策略,主要包括选择合适的启动子、改变信号肽结构、提高mRNA稳定性、提高翻译效率、表达稀有密码子、降低包涵体形成及蛋白降解,利用融合蛋白与分子伴侣、调控发酵条件实现高密度培养等。     

Directed evolution and characterization of Escherichia coli glucosamine synthase

Glucosamine synthase (GlmS) converts fructose-6-phosphate to glucosamine-6-phosphate. Overexpression of GlmS in Escherichia coli increased synthesis of glucosamine-6-P, which was dephosphorylated and secreted as glucosamine into the growth medium. The E. coli glmS gene was improved through error-prone polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in order to develop microbial strains for fermentation production of glucosamine. Mutants producing higher levels of glucosamine were identified by a plate cross-feeding assay and confirmed in shake flask cultures. Over 10 mutants were characterized and all showed significantly reduced sensitivity to inhibition by glucosamine-6-phosphate. Ki of mutants ranged from 1.4 to 4.0 mM as compared to 0.56 mM for the wild type enzyme. Product resistance resulted from single mutations (L468P, G471S) and/or combinations of mutations in the sugar isomerase domain. Most overexpressed GlmS protein was found in the form of inclusion bodies. Cell lysate from mutant 2123-72 contained twice as much soluble GlmS protein and enzyme activity as the strain overexpressing the wild type gene. Using the product-resistant mutant, glucosamine production was increased 60-fold.     

重组人血小板生成素在大肠杆菌中表达的研究

采用化学法全合成了编码人血小板生成素（ｔｈｒｏｍｂｏｐｏｉｅｔｉｎ,ＴＰＯ）成熟肽Ｎ端１５３氨基酸的基因序列,构建基于该合成基因的表达质粒,结果以谷胱甘肽转硫酶－ＴＰＯ１５３（ＧＳＴ－ＴＰＯ１５３）融合蛋白的方式获得了占全菌蛋白４０％的高效表达．进一步采用ＰＣＲ方法分别对ＴＰＯ合成基因及ＴＰＯｃＤＮＡ的翻译起始区（ＴＩＲ）序列进行定点突变,以降低这一区域的Ｇ－Ｃ含量．将突变序列分别插入到ｐＢＶ２２０表达载体中,重组质粒在转化大肠杆菌ＪＭ１０９后,均获得了表达,其中ＴＩＲ区突变后的合成基因表达产物约占全菌蛋白的１５％．为研究基因下游结构对表达的影响,在不改变氨基酸组成的基础上,构建了ＴＰＯ合成基因与ＴＰＯｃＤＮＡ的杂合序列表达质粒．研究结果表明翻译起始效率是影响ｒｈ－ＴＰＯ在大肠杆菌中表达的重要因素之一,同时基因下游序列的组成对表达水平也会产生影响．     

Green fluorescent protein and factorial approach: an effective partnership for screening the soluble expression of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli

We report how the combined use of protein expression reporter green fluorescent protein (GFP), and of an incomplete factorial approach (“InFFact”) made of 12 combinations of different states of three expression variables (bacterial strains, culture media and expression temperatures) created a convenient tool for screening the soluble expression of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli (E. coli).In the first part of this work, we used two recombinant proteins that could be easily detected by Western blotting in the soluble fraction of E. coli lysate in most of the 12 InFFact combinations. When these proteins were fused to GFP and used in the same experiment (“InFFact-GFP”), fluorescence signals proved as sensitive and reliable as those provided by Western blotting. A trend analysis based on Western blot signals or on fluorescence allowed finding expression conditions for successfully scaling up the production of both proteins. Thus, GFP allowed InFFact trend analysis to be performed without gel electrophoresis or Western blotting.In the second part, we compared the results obtained by InFFact and InFFact-GFP when two other recombinant proteins were used which, in contrast with the proteins used in the first part, were barely detectable by Western blotting. Surprisingly, InFFact-GFP but not InFFact was able to find expression conditions for successfully scaling up the production of both proteins, suggesting that GFP could increase the solubility of the fusion partner.In conclusion, GFP allowed InFFact to be performed without gel electrophoresis and with at least the same sensitivity and specificity as that of Western blotting.     

Production of a recombinant polyester-cleaving hydrolase from Thermobifida fusca in Escherichia coli

The hydrolase (Thermobifida fusca hydrolase; TfH) from T. fusca was produced in Escherichia coli as fusion protein using the OmpA leader sequence and a His₆ tag. Productivity could be raised more than 100-fold. Both batch and fed-batch cultivations yield comparable cell specific productivities whereas volumetric productivities differ largely. In the fed-batch cultivations final rTfH concentrations of 0.5 g L⁻¹ could be achieved. In batch cultivations the generated rTfH is translocated to the periplasm wherefrom it is completely released into the extracellular medium. In fed-batch runs most of the produced rTfH remains as soluble protein in the cytoplasm and only a fraction of about 35% is translocated to the periplasm. Migration of periplasmic proteins in the medium is obviously coupled with growth rate and this final transport step possibly plays an important role in product localization and efficacy of the Sec translocation process.