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Lyase activities of heterologous CpcS and CpcT for phycocyanin holo-β-subunit from Arthrospira platensis in Escherichia coli

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Abstract

Arthrospira platensis is an economically important cyanobacterium; and it has been used widely in food and pharmaceutical industries. The phycocyanin (PC) from A. platensis is extremely valuable in medicine and molecular biology due to its antioxidation and anti-tumoring activity and applicability as fluorescence protein tag. In present study, two recombinant plasmids, one contained the phycocyanobilin (PCB)-producing genes (hox1 and pcyA) while the other contained the phycobiliprotein gene (cpcB) and the lyase gene (either cpcS/U or cpcT), were constructed and synchronically transferred into E. coli in order to test the the activities of relevant lyases for catalysing PCB addition to CpcB during synthesizing fluorescent PC holo-β-subunit (β-PC) of A. platensis. As was evidenced by the fluorescence emitted at a peak specific for PC, CpcB was successfully synthesized in E. coli, to which co-expressed PCBs attached though at a relatively low efficiency. The results showed that the attachment of PCBs to CpcB were carried out mainly by co-expressed CpcS/U but CpcB also showed some autocatalytic activity. Currently, no CpcT activity was detected in this E. coli expression system. Further studies will be conducted to improve the efficiency of fluorescent PC synthesis in E. coli.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Marine Genetics and Breeding (Ocean University of China), Qingdao, 266003, P. R. China

    Junjie Yi, Di Xu, Xiaonan Zang & Xuecheng Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, Changsha, 410125, P. R. China

    Dingyang Yuan, Bingran Zhao, Li Tang & Yanning Tan

Authors
  1. Junjie Yi
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  2. Di Xu
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  3. Xiaonan Zang
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  4. Dingyang Yuan
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  5. Bingran Zhao
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  6. Li Tang
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  7. Yanning Tan
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  8. Xuecheng Zhang
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Correspondence to Di Xu.

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Yi, J., Xu, D., Zang, X. et al. Lyase activities of heterologous CpcS and CpcT for phycocyanin holo-β-subunit from Arthrospira platensis in Escherichia coli . J. Ocean Univ. China 13, 497–502 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-014-2161-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-014-2161-0

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