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Genes encoding the production of extracellular polysaccharide bioflocculant are clustered on a 30-kb DNA segment in Bacillus licheniformis

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Abstract

Bioflocculants are special high-molecular weight polymers produced by microorganisms. Despite the fact that several types of bioflocculants from different species of bacteria have been reported, there is a large gap in our knowledge regarding the molecular machine responsible for the production of bioflocculants. To investigate genes involved in bioflocculant synthesis, a fosmid library was generated from Bacillus licheniformis genomic DNA and screened for the production of bioflocculant. Four positive clones with distinct flocculation were isolated by a two-pooling scheme. The clone with 662 U ml−1 flocculating activity was sequenced. As a result, a 30-kb fragment with 26 hypothetical genes was identified in the bioflocculant-producing clone. Most of the predicted proteins encoded by the inserted genes showed significant homology with enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of polysaccharide. Based on these homologies, a biosynthesis pathway and two gene clusters involved in the production of the polysaccharide bioflocculant were proposed with the integration of functional descriptions of individual genes by metabolic databases, and a glucose-sensitive glycosidases was predicted. This research supplied significant data for potential application of bioflocculant-producing strains in wastewater refining and industrial downstream treatments.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB733505), Xiamen Science and Technology committee (3502Z20121021), National natural science foundation of China (51378444) and Shenzhen Science and Technology Research Project (JC201005280412A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, People’s Republic of China

    Shan Yan, Na Wang, Zhen Chen, Yuanpeng Wang, Ning He, Yajuan Peng & Qingbiao Li

  2. Key Laboratory for Chemical Biology of Fujian Province, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, People’s Republic of China

    Qingbiao Li

  3. College of Life Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, People’s Republic of China

    Xu Deng

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  1. Shan Yan
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  2. Na Wang
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  3. Zhen Chen
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  4. Yuanpeng Wang
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  5. Ning He
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  6. Yajuan Peng
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Correspondence to Yuanpeng Wang or Ning He.

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Yan, S., Wang, N., Chen, Z. et al. Genes encoding the production of extracellular polysaccharide bioflocculant are clustered on a 30-kb DNA segment in Bacillus licheniformis . Funct Integr Genomics 13, 425–434 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-013-0333-4

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