scholarly journals Effective Cryopreservation of a Bioluminescent Auxotrophic Escherichia coli-Based Amino Acid Array to Enable Long-Term Ready-to-Use Applications

Biosensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 252
Author(s):  
Hee Tae Ahn ◽  
In Seung Jang ◽  
Thinh Viet Dang ◽  
Yi Hyang Kim ◽  
Dong Hoon Lee ◽  
...  

Amino acid arrays comprising bioluminescent amino acid auxotrophic Escherichia coli are effective systems to quantitatively determine multiple amino acids. However, there is a need to develop a method for convenient long-term preservation of the array to enable its practical applications. Here, we reported a potential strategy to efficiently maintain cell viability within the portable array. The method involves immobilization of cells within agarose gel supplemented with an appropriate cryoprotectant in individual wells of a 96-well plate, followed by storage under freezing conditions. Six cryoprotectants, namely dimethyl sulfoxide, glycerol, ethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, sucrose, and trehalose, were tested in the methionine (Met) auxotroph-based array. Carbohydrate-type cryoprotectants (glycerol, sucrose, and trehalose) efficiently preserved the linearity of determination of Met concentration. In particular, the array with 5% trehalose exhibited the best performance. The Met array with 5% trehalose could determine Met concentration with high linearity (R2 value = approximately 0.99) even after storage at −20 °C for up to 3 months. The clinical utilities of the Met and Leu array, preserved at −20 °C for 3 months, were also verified by successfully quantifying Met and Leu in spiked blood serum samples for the diagnosis of the corresponding metabolic diseases. This long-term preservation protocol enables the development of a ready-to-use bioluminescent E. coli-based amino acid array to quantify multiple amino acids and can replace the currently used laborious analytical methods.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 1018
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Yokota

Helicases are nucleic acid-unwinding enzymes that are involved in the maintenance of genome integrity. Several parts of the amino acid sequences of helicases are very similar, and these quite well-conserved amino acid sequences are termed “helicase motifs”. Previous studies by X-ray crystallography and single-molecule measurements have suggested a common underlying mechanism for their function. These studies indicate the role of the helicase motifs in unwinding nucleic acids. In contrast, the sequence and length of the C-terminal amino acids of helicases are highly variable. In this paper, I review past and recent studies that proposed helicase mechanisms and studies that investigated the roles of the C-terminal amino acids on helicase and dimerization activities, primarily on the non-hexermeric Escherichia coli (E. coli) UvrD helicase. Then, I center on my recent study of single-molecule direct visualization of a UvrD mutant lacking the C-terminal 40 amino acids (UvrDΔ40C) used in studies proposing the monomer helicase model. The study demonstrated that multiple UvrDΔ40C molecules jointly participated in DNA unwinding, presumably by forming an oligomer. Thus, the single-molecule observation addressed how the C-terminal amino acids affect the number of helicases bound to DNA, oligomerization, and unwinding activity, which can be applied to other helicases.


1971 ◽  
Vol 124 (5) ◽  
pp. 905-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. V. Krishna ◽  
P. R. Krishnaswamy ◽  
D. Rajagopal Rao

1. Cell-free extracts of Escherichia coli K12 catalyse the synthesis of N-acetyl-l-phenylalanine from acetyl-CoA and l-phenylalanine. 2. The acetyl-CoA–l-phenylalanine α-N-acetyltransferase was purified 160-fold from cell-free extracts. 3. The enzyme has a pH optimum of 8 and catalyses the acetylation of l-phenylalanine. Other l-amino acids such as histidine and alanine are acetylated at slower rates. 4. A transacylase was also purified from E. coli extracts and its substrate specificity studied. 5. The properties of both these enzymes were compared with those of other known amino acid acetyltransferases and transacylases.


1966 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. W. Fisher

The conclusion by Suit, Matney, Doudney & Billen (1964) that Hfr donor cells ofEscherichia coliK12, starved of required amino acids can mate, has been re-examined. It appears that their conclusion is not valid and that apparent fertility of amino-acid starved cells is due to cross-feeding by the F−cells. The relationship of this result to the alternative mechanisms for chromosome transfer inE. coliis discussed.


1995 ◽  
Vol 309 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
K V Lu ◽  
M F Rohde ◽  
A R Thomason ◽  
W C Kenney ◽  
H S Lu

The mature 109-amino-acid human platelet-derived growth factor B (PDGF-B) peptide is derived by intracellular processing from a 241-amino-acid precursor synthesized in mammalian cells, with removal of 81 N-terminal and 51 C-terminal amino acids. In order to produce directly the mature 109-amino acid PDGF-B peptide as a recombinant protein in Escherichia coli, a CGA codon at position 110 of a DNA sequence encoding the full-length precursor form of PDGF-B was converted into the translation termination codon TGA by in vitro mutagenesis. Expression of this DNA via a plasmid vector in E. coli resulted in production of two distinct PDGF-B proteins having apparent molecular masses of 15 and 19 kDa, with the latter species predominating. Structural characterization employing N- and C-terminal amino acid sequencing and MS analyses indicated that the 15 kDa protein is the expected 109-amino-acid PDGF-B, and that the 19 kDa protein represents a C-terminal extended PDGF-B containing 160 amino acids. Characterization of a unique tryptic peptide derived from the 19 kDa protein revealed that this longer form of PDGF-B results from mistranslation of the introduced TGA termination codon at position 110 as tryptophan, with translation subsequently proceeding to the naturally occurring TAG termination codon at position 161. Owing to the high rate of translation readthrough of TGA codons in this and occasionally other proteins, it appears that the use of TGA as a translation termination codon for proteins to be expressed in E. coli should be avoided when possible.


2008 ◽  
Vol 54 (9) ◽  
pp. 725-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Li ◽  
Jiao Yin ◽  
Guosheng Qu ◽  
Luchao Lv ◽  
Yadong Li ◽  
...  

A gene encoding a putative multicopper oxidase (MCO) was cloned from the soil bacterium Klebsiella sp. 601 and its corresponding enzyme was overexpressed in an Escherichia coli strain. Klebsiella sp. 601 MCO is composed of 536 amino acids with a molecular mass of 58.2 kDa. Theoretical calculation gave a pI value of 6.11. The amino acid sequence of Klebsiella sp. 601 MCO is strongly homologous to that of E. coli CueO with a similarity of 90% and an identity of 78%. Unlike E. coli CueO, Klebsiella sp. 601 MCO contains an extra 20 amino acids close to its C-terminus. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity by Ni-affinity chromatography. The purified enzyme was capable of using DMP (2,6-dimethoxyphenol), ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazolinesulfonic acid)), and SGZ (syringaldazine) as substrates with an optimal pH of 8.0 for DMP, 3.0 for ABTS, and 7.0 for SGZ. Klebsiella sp. 601 MCO was quite stable at pH 7.0 in which its activity was constant for 25 h without any significant change. Kinetic studies gave Km, kcat, and kcat/Kmvalues of 0.49 mmol·L–1, 1.08 × 103s–1, and 2.23 × 103s–1·mmol–1·L, respectively, for DMP, 5.63 mmol·L–1, 6.64 × 103s–1, and 1.18 × 103s–1·mmol–1·L for ABTS, and 0.023 mmol·L–1, 11 s–1, and 4.68 × 102s–1·mmol–1·L for SGZ.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuling Zhu ◽  
Jifeng Yuan

Enantiopure amino acids are of particular interest in the agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. Here, we reported a multi-enzyme cascade for efficient production of L-phenylglycine (L-Phg) from biobased L-phenylalanine (L-Phe). We first attempted to engineer Escherichia coli for expressing L-amino acid deaminase (LAAD) from Proteus mirabilis, hydroxymandelate synthase (HmaS) from Amycolatopsis orientalis, (S)-mandelate dehydrogenase (SMDH) from Pseudomonas putida, the endogenous aminotransferase (AT) encoded by ilvE and L-glutamate dehydrogenase (GluDH) from E. coli. However, 10 mM L-Phe only afforded the synthesis of 7.21 mM L-Phg. The accumulation of benzoylformic acid suggested that the transamination step might be rate-limiting. We next used leucine dehydrogenase (LeuDH) from Bacillus cereus to bypass the use of L-glutamate as amine donor, and 40 mM L-Phe gave 39.97 mM (6.04 g/L) L-Phg, reaching 99.9% conversion. In summary, this work demonstrated a concise four-step enzymatic cascade for the L-Phg synthesis from biobased L-Phe, with a potential for future industrial applications.


2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1587-1590 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Zenkin ◽  
A. Kulbachinskiy ◽  
I. Bass ◽  
V. Nikiforov

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNA polymerase is 1,000-fold more sensitive to rifampin than Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. Chimeric E. coli RNA polymerase in which the β-subunit segment encompassing rifampin regions I and II (amino acids [aa] 463 through 590) was replaced with the corresponding region from M. tuberculosis (aa 382 through 509) did not show an increased sensitivity to the antibiotic. Thus, the difference in amino acid sequence between the rifampin regions I and II of the two species does not account for the difference in rifampin sensitivity of the two polymerases.


2016 ◽  
Vol 473 (21) ◽  
pp. 3791-3804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Navarro ◽  
Ulises Hernández-Chiñas ◽  
Delia Licona-Moreno ◽  
Edgar Zenteno ◽  
Alejandro Cravioto ◽  
...  

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a subtype of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli that is associated with haemorrhagic colitis and haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Studies of populations in endemic areas have reported that the presence of specific antibodies against the O157 lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is associated with a lower incidence of diarrhoea and HUS. Phage display and IgG anti-O157 LPS antibodies were used in the present study to select peptide mimotopes of O157 LPS expressed in protein III of the M13 phage. Synthetic peptides (SP) were designed using the derived amino acid sequences obtained from DNA nucleotides of 63 selected phagotopes. The LxP/YP/SxL motif was identified in five of the phagotope amino acid sequences. Antibody responses against the phagotopes and their corresponding SPs were evaluated. SP12, one of the designed SP, induced the production of antibodies against the homologous peptide (1:800) and O157 LPS (1:200). The specificity of anti-SP12 antiserum was confirmed by analyzing its response to SP3, an SP with a different amino acid sequence than that of SP12, as well as against an E. coli LPS different from O157. Competitive studies with SP12 and O157 LPS showed a significant decrease in anti-SP12 and anti-LPS O157 antiserum responses against SP12 and O157 LPS, respectively. Eighteen (82%) of the 22 human serum samples with positive reactivity against E. coli O157 LPS reacted with SP12 SP (cut-off >0.4). These results support the idea that SP12 is an immunogenic mimotope of O157 LPS.


2000 ◽  
Vol 182 (2) ◽  
pp. 488-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Valvano ◽  
Cristina L. Marolda ◽  
Mauricio Bittner ◽  
Mike Glaskin-Clay ◽  
Tania L. Simon ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The intermediate steps in the biosynthesis of the ADP-l-glycero-d-manno-heptose precursor of inner core lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are not yet elucidated. We isolated a mini-Tn10 insertion that confers a heptoseless LPS phenotype in the chromosome of Escherichia coli K-12. The mutation was in a gene homologous to the previously reported rfaE gene from Haemophilus influenzae. The E. coli rfaE gene was cloned into an expression vector, and an in vitro transcription-translation experiment revealed a polypeptide of approximately 55 kDa in mass. Comparisons of the predicted amino acid sequence with other proteins in the database showed the presence of two clearly separate domains. Domain I (amino acids 1 to 318) shared structural features with members of the ribokinase family, while Domain II (amino acids 344 to 477) had conserved features of the cytidylyltransferase superfamily that includes the aut gene product of Ralstonia eutrophus. Each domain was expressed individually, demonstrating that only Domain I could complement therfaE::Tn10 mutation in E. coli, as well as the rfaE543 mutation ofSalmonella enterica SL1102. DNA sequencing of therfaE543 gene revealed that Domain I had one amino acid substitution and a 12-bp in-frame deletion resulting in the loss of four amino acids, while Domain II remained intact. We also demonstrated that the aut::Tn5 mutation inR. eutrophus is associated with heptoseless LPS, and this phenotype was restored following the introduction of a plasmid expressing the E. coli Domain II. Thus, both domains ofrfaE are functionally different and genetically separable confirming that the encoded protein is bifunctional. We propose that Domain I is involved in the synthesis ofd-glycero-d-manno-heptose 1-phosphate, whereas Domain II catalyzes the ADP transfer to form ADP-d-glycero-d-manno-heptose.


mBio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajdeep Banerjee ◽  
Erin Weisenhorn ◽  
Kevin J. Schwartz ◽  
Kevin S. Myers ◽  
Jeremy D. Glasner ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Pathogenicity islands and plasmids bear genes for pathogenesis of various Escherichia coli pathotypes. Although there is a basic understanding of the contribution of these virulence factors to disease, less is known about variation in regulatory networks in determining disease phenotypes. Here, we dissected a regulatory network directed by the conserved iron homeostasis regulator, ferric uptake regulator (Fur), in uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) strain CFT073. Comparing anaerobic genome-scale Fur DNA binding with Fur-dependent transcript expression and protein levels of the uropathogen to that of commensal E. coli K-12 strain MG1655 showed that the Fur regulon of the core genome is conserved but also includes genes within the pathogenicity/genetic islands. Unexpectedly, regulons indicative of amino acid limitation and the general stress response were also indirectly activated in the uropathogen fur mutant, suggesting that induction of the Fur regulon increases amino acid demand. Using RpoS levels as a proxy, addition of amino acids mitigated the stress. In addition, iron chelation increased RpoS to the same levels as in the fur mutant. The increased amino acid demand of the fur mutant or iron chelated cells was exacerbated by aerobic conditions, which could be partly explained by the O2-dependent synthesis of the siderophore aerobactin, encoded by an operon within a pathogenicity island. Taken together, these data suggest that in the iron-poor environment of the urinary tract, amino acid availability could play a role in the proliferation of this uropathogen, particularly if there is sufficient O2 to produce aerobactin. IMPORTANCE Host iron restriction is a common mechanism for limiting the growth of pathogens. We compared the regulatory network controlled by Fur in uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) to that of nonpathogenic E. coli K-12 to uncover strategies that pathogenic bacteria use to overcome iron limitation. Although iron homeostasis functions were regulated by Fur in the uropathogen as expected, a surprising finding was the activation of the stringent and general stress responses in the uropathogen fur mutant, which was rescued by amino acid addition. This coordinated global response could be important in controlling growth and survival under nutrient-limiting conditions and during transitions from the nutrient-rich environment of the lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract to the more restrictive environment of the urinary tract. The coupling of the response of iron limitation to increased demand for amino acids could be a critical attribute that sets UPEC apart from other E. coli pathotypes.


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