Tj. Anderson et Ji. Macinnes, EXPRESSION AND PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS OF A NOVEL LACZ HOMOLOG FROM ACTINOBACILLUS-PLEUROPNEUMONIAE, FEMS microbiology letters, 152(1), 1997, pp. 117-123
To learn more about the genetics and physiology of the important swine
pathogen, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, we cloned the lacZ gene by
complementation of an Escherichia coli Delta lac mutant. The A. pleur
opneumoniae lacZ gene has an open reading frame of 3015 bp which could
encode a protein with a predicted molecular mass of 117 022. The dedu
ced protein shares 26.8-34.8% identity with beta-galactosidases from b
oth Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Sequences with homology
to seven regions commonly found in beta-galactosidases are present and
amino acids corresponding to active site residues Tyr-503 and Glu-537
in E. coli LacZ are also conserved; however, there is a leucine in th
e place of Gly-794, a residue which has been implicated in substrate r
ecognition. The sequences flanking the A. pleuropneumoniae lacZ gene d
o not share homology with known transport or regulatory genes nor do t
hey share homology with cAMP receptor protein (CRP) or LacI binding si
tes. Low levels of beta-galactosidase activity could be detected when
the protein was expressed from a multicopy plasmid in E. coli Delta la
c and when it was measured in A. pleuropneumoniae. The level of activi
ty was not markedly reduced in the presence of glucose. Although the A
. pleuropneumoniae LacZ shares some features with other beta-galactosi
dases, its constitutive expression and an unusual active site residue
suggest that it may have a unique function.