Characterization of an oxygen-dependent inducible promoter system, the nar promoter, and Escherichia coli with an inactivated nar operon

✍ Scribed by Jintae Lee; Moo Hwan Cho; Jongwon Lee

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 649 KB
• Volume: 52
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3592
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0290(19961205)52:5<572::aid-bit4>3.0.co;2-g

✦ Synopsis

The nar promoter of Escherichia coli, which is maximally induced under anaerobic conditions in the presence of nitrate, was characterized to see whether the nar promoter cloned onto pBR322 can be used as an inducible promoter. To increase the expression level, the nar promoter was expressed in €. coli where active nitrate reductase cannot be expressed from the naroperon on the chromosome. A plasmid with the lacZ gene expressing p-galactosidase instead of the structural genes of the nar operon was used to simplify an assay of induction of the nar promoter. The following effects were investigated to find optimal conditions: methods of inducing the narpromoter, optimal nitrate and molybdate concentrations maximally inducing the nar promoter, the amount of expressed p-galactosidase, and induction ratio (specific p-galactosidase activity after maximal induction/specific p-galactosidase activity before induction.)

The following results were obtained from the experiments: induction of the nar promoter was optimal when f. coli was grown in the presence of 1% nitrate at the beginning of culture; expression of p-galactosidase was not affected by molybdate; the induction ratio was maximal, approximately 300, when the overnight culture was grown in the flask for 2.5 h ( OD, , , = 1.3) before being transferred to the fermentor; the amount of p-galactosidase per cell and per medium volume was maximal when €. coli was grown under aerobic conditions to O D , , , = 1.7; then the nar promoter was induced under microaerobic conditions made by lowering dissolved oxygen level (DO) to I-2%. After approximately 6 h of induction, O D , , , became 3.2 and specific p-galactosidase activity became 36,000 Miller units, equivalent to 35% of total cellular proteins, which was confirmed from sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.