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Cloning, Expression, and Bioinformatics Analysis of Heavy Metal Resistance Gene afe_1862 from Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans L1 in Escherichia coli

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Abstract

Molecular studies of copper and cadmium resistances in acidophilic bacteria are significant in biomining. In this study, afe_1862, which encodes a heavy metal-binding protein in Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans L1, was amplified using PCR, cloned into the pET32a plasmid, and sequenced. Following SDS-PAGE analysis, optimization of the expression conditions and heterologous overexpression of afe_1862 in Escherichia coli BL21 in the presence of Cu2+ and Cd2+ were studied as well. The results indicated that AFE_1862 has higher resistance to Cu2+ than Cd2+. Bioinformatics analysis illustrated that AFE_1862 has a conserved HMA domain containing heavy metal-binding sites, which may play a role in transporting or detoxifying heavy metals.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to give thanks to the participants, coordinators, and administrators for their supports during the study. This work was supported by Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (No. 31460032, 31760028 and 81660581).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, China

    Feifan Leng, Yuanli Li, Wen Luo, Qingwei Wei, Yanjun Jing, Mingjun Yang & Yonggang Wang

  2. Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Science of CAAS, Lanzhou, 730050, China

    Xiaoli Wang

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  1. Feifan Leng
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  2. Yuanli Li
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  3. Wen Luo
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  4. Qingwei Wei
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  7. Mingjun Yang
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  8. Yonggang Wang
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Correspondence to Feifan Leng or Yonggang Wang.

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Leng, F., Li, Y., Luo, W. et al. Cloning, Expression, and Bioinformatics Analysis of Heavy Metal Resistance Gene afe_1862 from Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans L1 in Escherichia coli. Biol Trace Elem Res 189, 291–300 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-018-1462-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-018-1462-3

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