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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2004, p. 3839-3844, Vol. 70, No. 7
0099-2240/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.70.7.3839-3844.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Thermus thermophilus as a Cell Factory for the Production of a Thermophilic Mn-Dependent Catalase Which Fails To Be Synthesized in an Active Form in Escherichia coli

Departamento de Biocatálisis, Instituto de Catálisis y Petroleoquímica-CSIC,¹ Centro de Biología Molecular "Severo Ochoa" CSIC-UAM, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain²

Received 5 September 2003/ Accepted 16 March 2004

Thermostable Mn-dependent catalases are promising enzymes in biotechnological applications as H₂O₂-detoxifying systems. We cloned the genes encoding Mn-dependent catalases from Thermus thermophilus HB27 and HB8 and a less thermostable mutant carrying two amino acid replacements (M129V and E293G). When the wild-type and mutant genes were overexpressed in Escherichia coli, unmodified or six-His-tagged proteins of the expected size were overproduced as inactive proteins. Several attempts to obtain active forms or to activate the overproduced proteins were unsuccessful, even when soluble and thermostable proteins were used. Therefore, a requirement for a Thermus-specific activation factor was suggested. To overcome this problem, the Mn-dependent catalase genes were overexpressed directly in T. thermophilus under the control of the Pnar promoter. This promoter belongs to a respiratory nitrate reductase from of T. thermophilus HB8, whose transcription is activated by the combined action of nitrate and anoxia. Upon induction in T. thermophilus HB8, a 20- to 30-fold increase in catalase specific activity was observed, whereas a 90- to 110-fold increase was detected when the laboratory strain T. thermophilus HB27::nar was used as the host. The thermostability of the overproduced wild-type catalase was identical to that previously reported for the native enzyme, whereas decreased stability was detected for the mutant derivative. Therefore, our results validate the use of T. thermophilus as an alternative cell factory for the overproduction of thermophilic proteins that fail to be expressed in well-known mesophilic hosts.

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