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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 01 1996, 196-202, Vol 62, No. 1
RG Gardner, JB Russell, DB Wilson, GR Wang and NB Shoemaker
A carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) gene from Prevotella ruminicola B(1)4
was reconstructed by adding a cellulose binding domain from a
Thermomonospora fusca cellulase and was conjugally transferred from
Escherichia coli to Bacteroides uniformis 0061 by using a chloramphenicol
and tetracycline resistance shuttle vector (pTC-COW). pTC-COW was
specifically constructed to facilitate conjugal transfer of vectors from B.
uniformis donors to P. ruminicola recipients. B. uniformis transconjugants
containing CMCase constructs cloned into pTC- COW expressed Cmr, but they
did not produce the reconstructed CMCase until a xylanase promoter from P.
ruminicola 23 was added upstream of the CMCase (pTC-XRCMC). The xylanase
promoter allowed the B. uniformis transconjugants to produce large amounts
of the reconstructed CMCase, which was present on the outside surface of
the cells. Although the reconstructed CMCase alone did not allow B.
uniformis to grow on acid- swollen cellulose, rapid growth was observed
when two exocellulases were added to the culture supernatant. Under these
conditions, the reconstructed CMCase permitted faster growth than the
wild-type CMCase. The frequency of transfer of pTC-XRCMC from B. uniformis
to P. ruminicola B(1)4 was increased 100-fold when strictly anaerobic
conditions, nitrocelluose filters (cell immobilization), and more stringent
selections were employed. Although the P. ruminicola B(1)4 (pTC-XRCMC)
transconjugates expressed Tcr and had DNA that hybridized with a probe to
the shuttle vector, these transconjugants did not produce detectable levels
of the reconstructed CMCase even when xylan was the carbon source. On the
basis of these results, it appears that not all of the promoters recognized
by B. uniformis and P. ruminicola 23 are functional in P. ruminicola B(1)4.
However, the results with B. uniformis suggest that the introduction of a
P. ruminicola B(1)4 promoter should allow expression of the reconstructed
CMCase in P. ruminicola B(1)4.
Copyright © 1996, American Society for Microbiology
Use of a modified Bacteroides-Prevotella shuttle vector to transfer a reconstructed beta-1,4-D-endoglucanase gene into Bacteroides uniformis and Prevotella ruminicola B(1)4
Section of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
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