• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.1809-1813
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• 2006

A gene corresponding to 4-${\alpha}$-glucanotransferase (${\alpha}GTase$) was cloned from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus brockianus. The nucleotide sequence analysis showed that the ${\alpha}GTase$ gene is composed of 1,503 nucleotides and encodes a polypeptide that is 500 amino acids long with a calculated molecular mass of 57,221 Da. The deduced amino acid sequences of Thermus brockianus ${\alpha}GTase$ (TBGT) exhibited a high level of similarity to the amino acid sequence of ${\alpha}GTase$ of Thermus thermophilus (86%), but low level of homology to that of E. coli (26%). The TBGT gene was overexpressed in E. coli BL21, and the corresponding recombinant enzyme was efficiently purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The enzymatic characteristics revealed that optimal pH and temperature were pH 6 and $70^{\circ}C$, respectively. Most interestingly, TBGT reacted with small oligosaccharides, especially maltotriose, to form various maltooligosaccharides by using its disproportionation activity.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.111-117
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• 1995

In Escherichia coli, CRP forms a complex with cAMP and acts as a transcriptional regulator of many genes, including sugar metabolism operons. The E. coli MK2001, which is introduced the altered crp, is functional in the expression of lac, ara and man, in the absence of cAMP. However, the expression of mal gene is fully activated by the addition of cAMP or cGMP. The object of the study is cloning of the sfs (sugar fermentation stimulation) genes, which was involved in regulation of mal gene expression with the altered crp gene, and structural analysis and characterization of the genes at the molecular level. We have cloned 5 different E. coli genes which stimulate the maltose metabolism in a crp, cya::km (MK2001) background. Newly identified genes were designated as sfs. One of the sfs genes (pPC1), located at the 53.2 min map position on the E. coli chromosome, was further analyzed. Expression of the genes, which is involved in maltose metabolism, malQ (amylomaltase), was increased to 5.8-fold in the presence of a plasmid, pAP5, containing the subcloned sfs4 gene. The nucleotide seguence of a common 2,126 bp segment of the pPCM1 was determined and two open reading frames (ORF1 and ORF2) were detected. The ORF1 encodes the sfs4 gene and ORF2 encodes a truncated protein. Potential CRP binding site is located in the upstream of the putative promoter in the regulatory region. Expression of the cloned sfs4 gene was positively regulated by the cAMP-CRP complex.