Jf. Cavin et al., GENE CLONING, TRANSCRIPTIONAL ANALYSIS, PURIFICATION, AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PHENOLIC-ACID DECARBOXYLASE FROM BACILLUS-SUBTILIS, Applied and environmental microbiology, 64(4), 1998, pp. 1466-1471
Bacillus subtilis displays a substrate-inducible decarboxylating activ
ity with the following three phenolic acids: ferulic, p-coumaric, and
caffeic acids, Based on DNA sequence homologies between the Bacillus p
umilus ferulate decarboxylase gene (fdc) (A, Zago, G, Degrassi, and C.
V. Bruschi, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61:4484-4486, 1995) and the Lac
tobacillus plantarum p-coumarate decarboxylase gene (pdc) (J.-F. Cavin
, L. Barthel-mebs, and C, Divies, App't, Environ, Microbiol. 63:1939-1
944, 1997), a DNA probe of about 300 nucleotides for the L, plantarum
pdc gene was used to screen a B. subtilis genomic library in order to
clone the corresponding gene in this bacterium, One clone was detected
with this heterologous probe, and this clone exhibited phenolic acid
decarboxylase (PAD) activity. The corresponding 5-kb insertion was par
tially sequenced and was found to contain a 528-bp open reading frame
coding for a 162-amino-acid protein exhibiting 71 and 84% identity wit
h the pdc- and fdc-encoded enzymes, respectively. The PAD gene (pad) i
s transcriptionally regulated by p-coumaric, ferulic, or caffeic acid;
these three acids are the three substrates of PAD. The pad gene was o
verexpressed constitutively in Escherichia coli, and the stable purifi
ed enzyme was characterized, The difference in substrate specificity b
etween this PAD and other PADs seems to be related to a few difference
s in the amino acid sequence, Therefore, this novel enzyme should faci
litate identification of regions involved in catalysis and substrate s
pecificity.