Gene cloning, expression, and functional characterization of an ornithine decarboxylase protein from Serratia liquefaciens IFI65.
Putrescine has a negative effect on health and is also used as an indicator of quality on meat products. We investigated the genes involved in putrescine production by Serratia liquefaciens IFI65 isolated from a spoiled Spanish dry-cured ham. We report here the genetic organization of its ornithine decarboxylase encoding region. The 5506-bp DNA region showed the presence of three complete and two partial open reading frames. Putative functions have been assigned to several gene products by sequence comparison with proteins included in the databases. The second gene putatively coded for an ornithine decarboxylase. The functionality of this decarboxylase has been experimentally demonstrated by complementation to an E. coli defective mutant. Based on sequence comparisons of some enterobacterial ornithine decarboxylase regions, we have elaborated a hypothetical pathway for the acquisition of putrescine biosynthetic genes in some Enterobacteriaceae strains.
Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Fermentaciones Industriales, CSIC, Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
Blanca
B
De Las Rivas
Alfonso V
AV
Carrascosa
Rosario
R
Muñoz
D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D005519:Food Preservation; D008461:Meat Products / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009955:Ornithine Decarboxylase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011700:Putrescine / Q000096:biosynthesis; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D044090:Serratia liquefaciens / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D013030:Spain; D013552:Swine
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D009955:Ornithine Decarboxylase; D011700:Putrescine