光合细菌嗜酸柏拉红菌5-氨基乙酰丙酸合成酶基因的克隆与原核表达

5-氨基乙酰丙酸(ALA)可作为除草剂、杀虫剂和植物生长调节剂在农业上应用,但由于其成本较高而限制了它的大面积使用。利用常规基因工程操作方法结合载体介导PCR法(Vecterette PCR)克隆了嗜酸柏拉红菌(Rhodoblastus acidophilus)的5-氨基乙酰丙酸合成酶(ALAS)基因。并将编码ALAS的基因插入到原核表达载体pQE30中,在大肠杆菌不同菌株(E.coli JM109、M15及BL21(DE3))中进行诱导表达。对产物进行SDS-PAGE分析表明,ALAS基因已在细菌中成功表达。使用Ni-NTA亲和层析法对表达的ALAS进行分离、纯化,得到大小约为44kD的ALAS蛋白。通过优化工程菌株的培养条件,建立了发酵生产ALA的方法,其胞外分泌ALA产量达5.379g/L,ALAS酶活力高达333U/min.mg。这是目前国内外利用生物法生产ALA产量最高的报道,为ALA的产业化应用打下了良好的基础。

Cloning and prokaryotic expression of Rhodoblastus acidophilus 5-aminolevlinate synthase gene

5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is formed by the enzyme ALA synthase (ALAS). However, the fidelity of ALAS gene among species is low. The ALAS gene of photosynthetic bacteria Rhodoblastus acidophilus was cloned from its genomic DNA by conventional PCR and Veterette PCR and further sequenced. The identity of ALAS gene among photosynthetic bacteria species is from 64.0% to 95.1% according to phylogenic analysis. Furthermore, the ALAS gene was subcloned into an expression vector pQE30. For the overproduction of ALA, the recombinant ALAS was overexpressed in Escherichia coli strains JM109, M15 and BL21(DE3), respectively. The expected 44kD protein was detected by SDS-PAGE in three E. coli strains after IPTG induction and further purified by affinity purification on Ni-NTA. The conditions including strain, medium, substrate of ALA synthesize (glycine and succinic acid), and ALA dehydratase inhibitor (levulinic acid) were optimized for attainning the maximum yield of ALA in E. coli. The ALA production was established on E.coli M15, medium 1 supplied with 100mmol/L glycine and 50mmol/L succinic acid, and 40mmol/L levulinic acid. The activity of ALAS was up to 333U/min·mg of protein. Meanwhile, the output of ALA was reached to 5.379g/L, which is the highest yield of ALA up to date by biofermentation. ALA has a variety of agricultural applications not only as an herbicide, insecticide, and growth promoting factor, but also based on its ability to confer salt and cold temperature tolerance in plants. Our recombinant bacteria are of great potential in the production of ALA. Our results offer an easy and simple ALA mass production method and may stimulate the application of ALA in agriculture.