A novel thermostable GH5_7 ß-mannanase from Bacillus pumilus GBSW19 and its application in manno-oligosaccharides (MOS) production.

A novel thermostable mannanase from a newly isolated Bacillus pumilus GBSW19 has been identified, expressed, purified and characterized. The enzyme shows a structure comprising a 28 amino acid signal peptide, a glycoside hydrolase family 5 (GH5) catalytic domain and no carbohydrate-binding module. The recombinant mannanase has molecular weight of 45 kDa with an optimal pH around 6.5 and is stable in the range from pH 5-11. Meanwhile, the optimal temperature is around 65 °C, and it retains 50% relative activity at 60 °C for 12h. In addition, the purified enzyme can be activated by several ions and organic solvents and is resistant to detergents. Bpman5 can efficiently convert locus bean gum to mainly M2, M3 and M5, and hydrolyze manno-oligosaccharides with a minimum DP of 3. Further exploration of the optimum condition using HPLC to prepare oligosaccharides from locust bean gum was obtained as 10mg/ml locust bean gum incubated with 10 U/mg enzyme at 50 °C for 24h. By using this enzyme, locust bean gum can be utilized to generate high value-added oligosaccharides with a DP of 2-6.

Identification of pathogenicity-related genes in the rice pathogen Ustilaginoidea virens through random insertional mutagenesis.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) is becoming a popular effective system as an insertional mutagenesis tool in filamentous fungi. To gain more insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Ustilaginoidea virens, the causal agent of rice false smut disease, a T-DNA insertion mutant library of U. virens was established using ATMT. We optimized a range of conditions to improve the transformation efficiency. Transformants were most effectively obtained when the optimal co-cultivation time is 72h, with 50µM AS in medium and 100µl A. tumefaciens for co-cultivation, leading to the production of 160-185 hygromycin B resistant transformants per 1×10(5) conidia. Southern blot analysis indicated that 58.14% of transformants had a single T-DNA copy. Among 5600 transformants tested for virulence, 37 mutants with reproducible pathogenic defects were obtained. The flanking sequences of three avirulent tranformants (B20, B1015 and B1465) and two pathogenicity-reduced transformants (B726 and B785) were amplified by high-efficiency thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR. Sequence analyses revealed that single T-DNA insertion in mutant B20 targeted the coding region of a gene encoding a protein highly similar to SUN family protein, and in mutant B726 targeted upstream of a gene with unknown function. The two T-DNA insertion sites in mutant B785 were found in the coding region of a gene encoding C6 transcription factor, but failed in amplified flanking sequence of another T-DNA. Chromosomal rearrangement occurred in the genome of mutant B1016 and B1465 with single T-DNA insertion. Among avirulent mutants, B20 showed altered colony growth and pigmentation. The T-DNA insert in B20 was detected in the coding region of a gene named UvSUN2. Morphophysiological characterization analysis suggested that UvSUN2 might be a virulence factor, and possibly required for proper fungal growth, cell wall construction, and stress responses in U. virens. This study optimize and validate the transformation procedure, maximizing the number of single copy transformants and developing an efficient procedure for rescuing adjacent host sequences along with the inserted T-DNA. This is the first report of identification several candidate virulence factors and validated one in U. virens. Together with identification of avirulent mutants and their associated genes, results suggested that ATMT can effectively be used to identify genes associated with pathogenicity in U. virens, and provided novel insights into molecular mechanisms underlying virulence of this pathogen.

Cloning, expression and characterization of a new aspartate aminotransferase from Bacillus subtilis B3.

In the present study, we report the identification of a new gene from the Bacillus subtilis B3 strain (aatB3), which comprises 1308 bp encoding a 436 amino acid protein with a monomer molecular weight of 49.1 kDa. Phylogenetic analyses suggested that this enzyme is a member of the Ib subgroup of aspartate aminotransferases (AATs; EC 2.6.1.1), although it also has conserved active residues and thermostability characteristic of Ia-type AATs. The Asp232, Lys270 and Arg403 residues of AATB3 play a key role in transamination. The enzyme showed maximal activity at pH 8.0 and 45 °C, had relatively high activity over an alkaline pH range (pH 7.0-9.0) and was stable up to 50 °C. AATB3 catalyzed the transamination of five amino acids, with L-aspartate being the optimal substrate. The K(m) values were determined to be 6.7 mM for L-aspartate, 0.3 mM for α-ketoglutarate, 8.0 mM for L-glutamate and 0.6 mM for oxaloacetate. A 32-residue N-terminal amino acid sequence of this enzyme has 53% identity with that of Bacillus circulans AAT, although it is absent in all other AATs from different organisms. Further studies on AATB3 may confirm that it is potentially beneficial in basic research as well as various industrial applications.