title: Gene cloning, structural gene and promoter identification, and active assay of the phosphatidylcholine synthase of Pseudomonas sp. strain 593.
abstract: Pseudomonas sp. strain 593, a soil bacterium, is able to use exogenous choline to synthesize phosphatidylcholine via phosphatidylcholine synthase (Pcs). A 2020 bp DNA fragment that hybridized to a Pcs probe was cloned. This fragment contained a large open reading frame (ORF) with two potential ATG start sites that would encode for 293 and 231 amino acid proteins. Fragments containing the two ORFs encoded Pcs when they were inserted into the expression vector pET23a and expressed under the control of the T7 promoter in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) pLysS. However, when the two ORFs were inserted into the cloning vector pMD18-T and expressed without control of the plasmid promoter in E. coli DH5α, only the larger clone exhibited Pcs activity. This suggested that the larger fragment contained a native promoter driving expression of the smaller ORF. A promoter activity assay, in which DNA fragments were inserted into the promoter-probe plasmid pCB182 and β-galactosidase activity of E. coli transformants was tested, demonstrated that a promoter is indeed present in the DNA region. All results together indicate that the 696 bp ORF, not the larger 897 bp ORF, encodes the Pcs in Pseudomonas sp. strain 593 and carries a promoter in front of its 5' terminus.
authors.affiliation: The Faculty of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuchang, Wuhan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Huoguang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wenhua
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xingguo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002794:Choline / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000378:metabolism; D010957:Plasmids; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017855:Transferases (Other Substituted Phosphate Groups) / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines; D017855:Transferases (Other Substituted Phosphate Groups); C483298:CDP-diacylglycerol choline O-phosphatidyltransferase; D002794:Choline