Analysis of the chloroplast genome characteristics of Rhus chinensis by de novo sequencing / 生物工程学报

Rhus chinensis is an important economic species, which could provide raw materials for pharmaceutical and industrial dyes. Rhus chinensis is famous for its resistance to drought, cold, and salt. It grows in temperate, warm temperate, and subtropical regions. We report here Rhus chinensis chloroplast genomes by de novo sequencing. The results show that the length of Rhus chinensis was 159 082 bp, exhibiting a typical four-part structure with two single-copy regions (long single copy [LSC] and short single copy [SSC] sections) separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IRs). The length of LSC and SSC was 85 394 bp and 18 663 bp, respectively. The genomes contained 126 genes, including 88 protein encoding genes, 8 rRNA and 30 tRNA genes. In the chloroplast genome, 61.97% of the sequence were gene coding region. In the sequence of gene encoding region, the vast majority of sequences were protein encoding region, accounting for 86.65%, followed by rRNA (10 620 bp, 10.77%) and tRNA (2 540 bp, 2.58%). In Rhus chinensis chloroplast genome, only 8 genes contain introns, all containing 1 intron except ycf3 gene (2 introns). The Rhus chinensis chloroplast genome contains 755 SSR locies. SSR mainly consists of dinucleotide and mononucleotide, accounting for 60% (453) and 28.74% (217) respectively. The clustering results show that Anacardiaceae were closest to Rhus chinensis, followed by Aceraceae and Sapindaceae. This study provides a molecular basis for the classification of Rhus chinensis.

Construction and characterization of Escherichia coli D-3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase mutants with feedback-inhibition relief / 生物工程学报

3-Phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PGDH, EC 1.1.1.95) is the key enzyme in L-serine biosynthesis and its coding gene is serA. PGDH is feedback inhibited by L-serine. In order to relieve the feedback-inhibition of PGDH by L-serine, H344 or D346 or D364 were chosen for site directed mutagenesis. The mutants were generated by the standard QuikChange mutagenesis, further subcloned into expression vector pT7-7 and transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells. The recombinant cells were collected after cultured in LB media post induced by isopropyl beta-Dthiogalactopyranoside. The enzymes were purified by anion exchange chromatography, and SDS-PAGE showed that the purified enzymes were homogenous. Enzyme characterization indicated that the mutant enzyme showed similar activity, optimal temperature, and optimal pH as that of the wild-type enzyme. Moreover, feedback inhibition study showed that the activity of the double mutant (N346A/H344A) could remain 96% in the presence of serine up to 160 mmol/L, whereas the activity of the wild-type enzyme remains only 50% in the presents of serine of 7 μmol/L, thus successfully relieving the feedback inhibition of PGDH with its activity remained.