A thermostable glucose isomerase having a relatively low optimum pH: study of activity and molecular cloning of the corresponding gene

A thermostable glucose isomerase from a newly isolated thermophilic Streptomyces sp. SK strain, had a wide pH range with an optimum of 6 at 60°C and 6.4 at 90°C. It was optimally active at 95°C and completely stable at 80°C for at least 5.5 h with a half-life of 5 h at 90°C. Using E.coli as a host strain and an internal fragment of xylA of S. olivochromogenes as a probe, a 6.5 kb DNA fragment from Streptomyces sp. SK was cloned. This fragment carries the entire xylA gene since the recombinant plasmid complements the E.coli xyl-5 mutant strain HB101. © Rapid Science Ltd. 1998