• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.129-134
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• 1992

Segregational instability of a recombinant plasmid, pDML6, encoding extracellular $\beta$-lactamase in Streptomyces lividans PD6 was characterized by growth kinetic analysis. The quantitative determination of the plasmid harbored in the mycelia was evaluated with mycelia fragmented mechanically, and also with colonies regenerated from protoplasts. Conditions for the formation of protoplasts and regeneration of protoplasts were established. The maximal specific growth rates of the host strain and the plasmid-harboring strain in a chemically defined medium without selection pressure were the same. The probability of plasmid loss from the harbouring cells was higher at higher growth rates. Mathematical models for the prediction of cell growth, substrate uptake, and accumulation of the cloned gene product were developed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.321-326
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• 2000

To examine the feasibility of the long-term production of the human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (hG-CSF) using the $_{L}-arabinose$ promoter system of Escherichia coli, flask relay culture and cyclic fed-batch culture were performed. In the flask relay culture, it was found that the pismid was maintained stably up to about 170 generations in an uninduced condition, whereby the cells could also maintain the capability of expressing hG-CSF expression were maintained stably up to at least 100 generations. In contrast, in the cyclid fed-batch culture, segregational plasmid instability was observed within about 4 generations after induction, even though the cell growth and hG-CSF production reached their maximum balues, 78.0 g/l of dry cell weight and 7.0 g/l of hG-CSF, respectively. It would appear that, when compared to the flask relay culture, the high-cell density and high-level expression of hG-CSF in the cyclic fed-batch cultrure led to the segregational plasmid instability; in other words, a severe metabolic burden existe on the cells due to the high-level expression of hG-CSF. Accordingly, based on these long-term cultures, the segregational and structural plasmid instability was observed and a strategy to overcome such problems could be designed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제18권10호
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• pp.1630-1633
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• 2008

A novel putative toxin-antitoxin segregational stability system named KyAB system was identified in a novel native plasmid pBMB8240 from Bacillus thuringiensis strain YBT-1520, based on sequences homology with other toxin-antitoxin systems, the lethal activity of the KyB putative toxin in Escherichia coli and the stabilizing effect of the kyAB system in Bacillus thuringiensis. Secondarily, the native plasmid pBMB9741 from the same strain was resequenced and the corrected plasmid was named as pBMB7635. Based on sequence homology with the tasAB system and the lethal activity of toxin protein in Escherichia coli, a tasAB-like putative toxin-antitoxin system was identified on pBMB7635.

• 한국미생물·생명공학회지
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.566-570
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• 1997

During sporulation, Bacillus thuringiensis strains produce crystals consist of toxin proteins highly specific against insect pests. Their host specificities are desirable from a standpoint of environmental safety, but also limit market potential. Thus, development of improved Bacillus thuringiensis strains having broad host spectrum will contribute to increase its use. For the construction of Bacillus thuringiensis strain having broad host spectrum, we cloned cry1C gene encoding a toxin protein highly toxic against Spodoptera exigua from a B. thuringiensis isolate and constructed two recombinant plasmids, pUBClC and plC60. The plasmid PUBC1C has a replication origin of the natural plasmid pBC16 from B. cereus which is closely related species to B. thuringiensis, and the pBC16 was known to be replicated by rolling-circle mechanism. The plasmid pIC60 has a replication origin of a resident 60 MDa plasmid from B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki HD263, and it is believed that the pIC60 is replicated in a theta mode. The two plasmids were introduced into B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki cryB strain, and the transformed strains produced well-shaped bipyramidal crystals. We confirmed the expression of the cry1C gene by SDS-PAGE, and Western blotting. By investigating the segregational stability, it was found that the plasmid pIC60 is more stable than the pUBC1C.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.551-553
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• 2000

A strong constitutive $P_{JH}$ promoter from Bacillus was applied to overexpress the endoxylanase gene in B. subtilis. The expression plasmid, pHJKJ4, was designed to contain the $P_{JH}$ promoter and endoxylanase promoter ($P_B$), and introduced into B. subtilis DB104. Through batch fermentation of the trasformant cell on a maltose medium, endoxylanase was produced in a growth-associated manner as the predominant protein. The total activity reached about 600 unit/ml at the end of the cultivation, which corresponded to 698 mg endoxylanase protein/l with a specific activity of 860 unit/mg protein. It was also found that the segregational plasmid instability was less than 30% and most of the endoxylanase activity was detected in the culture medium. This result suggests that the secretory production of endoxylanase can be significantly enhanced with the use of the $P_{JH}$ promoter and high-cell density culture techniques, quantitatively as well as qualitatively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제25권10호
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• pp.1702-1708
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• 2015

We have developed a new shuttle plasmid, designated as pLK1-MCS that can replicate in both Clostridium acetobutylicum and Escherichia coli, by combining the pUB110 and pUC19 plasmids. Plasmid pLK1-MCS replicated more stably than previously reported plasmids containing either the pIM13 or the pAMβ1 replicon in the absence of antibiotic selective pressure. The transfer frequency of pLK1-MCS into C. acetobutylicum was similar to the transfer frequency of other shuttle plasmids. We complemented C. acetobutylicum ML1 (that does not produce solvents such as acetone, butanol, and ethanol owing to loss of the megaplasmid pSOL1 harboring the adhE1-ctfAB-adc operon) by introducing pLK1-MCS carrying the adhE1-ctfAB-adc operon into C. acetobutylicum ML1. The transformed cells were able to resume anaerobic solvent production, indicating that the new shuttle plasmid has the potential for practical use in microbial biotechnology.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제22권9호
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• pp.1279-1287
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• 2012

We established an efficient transformation method for thermophile Geobacillus kaustophilus HTA426 using conjugative transfer from Escherichia coli of host-mimicking plasmids that imitate DNA methylation of strain HTA426 to circumvent its DNA restriction barriers. Two conjugative plasmids, pSTE33T and pUCG18T, capable of shuttling between E. coli and Geobacillus spp., were constructed. The plasmids were first introduced into E. coli BR408, which expressed one inherent DNA methylase gene (dam) and two heterologous methylase genes from strain HTA426 (GK1380-GK1381 and GK0343-GK0344). The plasmids were then directly transferred from E. coli cells to strain HTA426 by conjugative transfer using pUB307 or pRK2013 as a helper plasmid. pUCG18T was introduced very efficiently (transfer efficiency, $10^{-5}-10^{-3}\;recipient^{-1}$). pSTE33T showed lower efficiency ($10^{-7}-10^{-6}\;recipient^{-1}$) but had a high copy number and high segregational stability. Methylase genes in the donor substantially affected the transfer efficiency, demonstrating that the host-mimicking strategy contributes to efficient transformation. The transformation method, along with the two distinguishing plasmids, increases the potential of G. kaustophilus HTA426 as a thermophilic host to be used in various applications and as a model for biological studies of this genus. Our results also demonstrate that conjugative transfer is a promising approach for introducing exogenous DNA into thermophiles.