The secretion of lecithinase of Pseudomonas alcaligenes S2 was via type Ⅱ secretion pathway

Strain S2 is a lecithin （or phosphatidylcholine）- solubilizing bacterium, which was isolated from the rice rhizosphere in rural areas of Beijing, China. On the basis of a polyphasic study involving phenotypic tests, physiological and biochemical tests, 16S rDNA sequence analysis, G＋C content determination and DNA-DNA hybridizations analysis, strain S2 was identified as Pseudomonas alcaligenes. R alcaligenes S2 was mutagenized with Tn5 and four mutants showing decreased or increased solubilizing ability of lecithin were isolated based on the halo size around colonies on the solid plate supplemented with egg yolk. To characterize the genes of R alcaligenes S2 involved in solubilization of lecithin, the EcoR I fragments of the chromosomes from the four mutant strains carrying a single transposon were cloned, and the DNA sequences flanking the Tn5 were determined. The Tn5 insertion sites in the mutants M808, M1329 and M1400, showing decreased solubilizing ability of lecithin, were found to be located in the xcpS, xcpX and xcpW , respectively, whose products XcpS, XcpX and XcpW were the components of type Ⅱ secretion pathway. Complementation of xcpS, xcpX and xcpW could restore the corresponding mutants M808, M1329 and M1400 to solubilize lecithin. The data suggested that mutation in one of these xcp genes would lead to the absence of mature lecithinase secretion into the extracellular medium. The data also indicated that the secretion of lecithin-hydrolyzing enzyme of R alcaligenes was via type Ⅱ secretion pathway. In the mutant M20 showing increasing lecithin-hydrolyzing activity, the interrupted gene showed 86% identity with chpA of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, whose product plays an important role in controlling twitching motility of the bacterial ceils.     

Hydrogen production by draTGB hupL double mutant of Rhodospirillum rubrum under different light conditions

To increase H2 yield of Rhodospirillum rubrum in two-stage hydrogen production process, two deletion mutants were constructed. One is single mutant designated R. rubrum UR801 that deleted hupL gene encoding the large subunit of uptake hy- drogenase, and the other is a double mutant desig- nated R. rubrum UR805 lacked both draTGB encod- ing regulators for the activity of nitrogenase and hupL. Comparing H2 yields of two mutants with R. rubrum UR2 (wild type) and UR472 (ΔdraTGB) under differ- ent light conditions, the results showed that the H2 yield of R. rubrum UR801 under continuous light is the highest (5700 mL of H2 per liter culture), and it is 1.56, 2.24 and 2.32-fold that of R. rubrum UR2, UR472 and UR805, respectively. However, the total H2 yield of R. rubrum UR805 in two-stage hydrogen production process is the highest (4303 mL/L), and it is 1.35, 1.21 and 1.04-fold that of R. rubrum UR2, UR801 and UR472, respectively. Thus, R. rubrum UR805 might be a valuable strain to produce a large amount of hydrogen in two-stage hydrogen produc- tion process.     

Agar coating in multicellular spheroids culture of rat hepatocytes

Aggregation of freshly isolated adult rat hepatocytesin vitro is important for the construction of artificial liver support system. In the experiment, agar has been used as an extracellular matrix substrate and results demonstrate that hepatocytes in serum-free culture medium can effectively form floating spheroids in tissue culture dishes coated with agar, which maintain higher ability to produce urea and albumin than monolayer cultured cells.     

Submerged culture of Magne-tospirillum gryphiswaldense under N2-fixing condition and regulation of activity of nitrogen fixation

A submerged culture technique for Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense under the nitrogen-fixing condition (microaerobic and N-limited) was set up. In N-limited medium with Na-lactate as a sole carbon source, the optical density (A600 nm) and activity of nitrogen fixation of cells were 1.3 and 217 nmol of ethylene produced per hour per A600nm respectively within 21 h by three times of feeds. The pH and temperature were controlled at 7.2 and 30℃ respectively, and the oxygen concentration was controlled by sparging with N2 containing 0.4%-0.8% of O2. The activity of nitrogen fixation of cells was obviously inhibited by oxygen and ammonium. It indicated that the posttranslational regulation of nitrogenase existed in M. gryphiswaldense.     

DBS与[Cd(Phen)_2]~(2+)缔合FAAS间接测定方法

本文研究了镉离子与邻菲咯啉生成络阳离子,再与十二烷基苯磺酸钠形成中性离子缔合物,萃入二甲苯内,火焰原子吸收测二甲苯中镉的吸光度,间接测出DBS含量.pH4.4时,测定DBS的线性范围0.23～1.40μg/ml.该法测定结果与亚甲基蓝光度法相近.     

Deletion analysis of oligomycin PKS genes （olmA） in Streptomyces arermitilis

Gene deletion vector pXL05(pKC1139::△olmA1 △olmA4) was used to disrupt oligomycin PKS encoding genes (olmA ) in Streptomyces avermitilis CZ8-73, the producer of anthelmintic avermectins B and the cell growth inhibitor oligomycin, olmA gene cluster in the chromosome was displaced by deletion allele on the plasmid via double crossover. Four of disruptants were confirmed by Southern blotting. Shaking flask experiments and HPLC analyses showed that the four mutants no longer produced the toxic oligomycin, but only made four components of avermectins B, which were avermectin Bla, Blb, B2a, B2b. The yields of avermectins B in these mutants were separately equal to those in CZ8-73. This revealed that olmA genes deletion did not affect the biosynthesis of avermectins. The deletion mutants were proved to be genetically stable, and thus might be promising strains in industrial production of avermectins B.     

模拟酶轴向配体激活过氧化氢酶的研究──提高天然酶活性的新方法

曾报道了以铁卟啉作为细胞色素Ｐ４５０模拟酶的活性中心，轴向配体例如巯基苯甲酸、半胱氨酸作为激活剂，提高模拟酶体系催化活性的研究．而过氧化氢酶的活性中心也为铁卟啉．进一步报道模拟酶的轴向配体提高过氧化氢酶的活性，并提出了一种提高天然酶活性的新方法．硫代硫酸钠、维生素Ｃ、巯基乙酸和Ｌ－半胱氨酸可作为过氧化氢酶的轴向配体，而激活过氧化氢酶．     

嗜菌紫质高聚物膜的制备与修饰

用聚乙烯醇和明胶作介持制成的嗜菌紫质膜具有良好的光学性质，与液体悬液中的嗜菌紫质相比，在膜中，其Ｍ态中间体的寿命被延长了３个数量级，在碱性条件下Ｍ态的寿命要比在酸性条件下，另外，盐酸胍及某些有机试剂也能延长Ｍ态的寿命。     

Construction and characterization of double mutants in nitrogenase of<Emphasis Type="Italic">Klebsiella pneumoniae</Emphasis>

Two mutants in nitrogenase of Klebsiella pneumoniae are constructed by site-directed mutagenesis and gene replacement procedure, which express the nitrogenases with Lysine and Glutamine substituting for α-Glutamine 190 and α-Histidine 194 respectively (Kp-Q α190 K and Kp-Hα194 Q). The above two substitutions are respectively introduced into a nifV mutant (expressing a citrate-containing nitrogenase) and sequentially two double mutants are obtained (Kp-Q α190 K-nifV and Kp-H α194 Q-nifV). All four mutants exhibit strict Nif phenotype under the N2-fixation condition and fail to grow diazotrophically. Altered nitrogneases are effectively depressed and the C2H2 reduction analysis shows that the double substitutions in Kp-Q α190 K-nifV abolish cell C2H2 reduction activity, but Kp-H α194 Q-nifV cells maintain a C2H2 reduction activity at 10% of that of wild type. Whole cell C2D2 reduction by all four mutants in comparison to the wild type and nifV mutant is also detected. The results show that only single α-Gln^194 substitution does not perturb the stereospecificity of protonation of C2D2. These results indicate that the α-Glutamine 190 and its combination with homocitrate are essential to the catalytic activity of nitrogenase and it is proposed that α-Glutamine 190 and its combination with homocitrate are involved in the proton and/or electron transfer to FeMoco. The nitrogenases from these double mutants will be useful in further analysis of the entry of the proton and/or electron to FeMoco and the substrate binding sites.