Characterization of an Oxygen-Dependent Inducible Promoter Systems, the nar Promoter of Escherichia coli, and Gram negative host strains

The nar promoter of Escherichia coli was known to induce maximally under anaerobic or microaerobic conditions in the presence of nitrate. In this study, the nar promoter was tested to see whether the expression level of a reporter gene which fused lacZ gene at nar promoter's downstream, in the some gram negative host strains(Agrobacterium, Pseudomonas and Rhizobium). A nar promoter system(Combination of nar promoter and gram negative strain) was grown under aerobic conditions to absorbance at 600 nm of nearly 2.0 and then, the nar promoter was induced by lowering DO to 1-2% with alternating microaerobic and aerobic condition in the fermentor cultures, using different gram negative hosts. For a wild type nar promoter (pNW61), it was possible to maintain production of ${\beta}-galactosidase$ activity per cell(specific ${\beta}-galactosidase$ activity) at 14,000, 9600, 45 Miller units in the presence of 1% nitrate. and for a nitrate - independent nar promoter (pNW618) at 12,000, 10,400 and 58 Miller units in the absence of nitrate ion, respectively.