Abstract
Ectoine, a cyclic tetrahydropyrimidine (2-methyl-1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidine-4-carboxylic acid), is a natural compound, which serves as a protective substance in many bacterial cells. In this study, the putative ectABC gene cluster from Bacillus halodurans was heterologously expressed in E. coli and the production of ectoine was confirmed by HPLC analysis. The activity of the enzymes coded by the ectA, B and C genes were found to be higher in induced transgenic cells compared to the uninduced cells. Phylogenetic analysis revealed sequence identities ranging from 36–73% for ectA gene, 55–81% for ectB gene and 55–80% for ectC gene indicating that the enzymes are evolutionarily well conserved.
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Authors are grateful to the Director, Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Cochin for providing the necessary facilities to carry out this research work and Indian Council for Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India for financial assistance.
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Communicated by Ercko Stackebrandt.
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Rajan, L.A., Joseph, T.C., Thampuran, N. et al. Characterization and phylogenetic analysis of ectoine biosynthesis genes from Bacillus halodurans . Arch Microbiol 190, 481–487 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-008-0397-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-008-0397-z