[Construction of novel recombinant Escherichia coli capable of producing 1,3-propanediol]

The 1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase isoenzyme encoding gene (yqhD) from E. coli was amplified by PCR. yqhD was inserted in pEtac to yield the recombinant expression vector pEtac-yqhD. Over-expression of yqhD in E. coli JM109 was achieved with pEtac-yqhD. SDS-PAGE analysis showed an over-expressed recombinant product at about 43 kD, consistent with the molecular weight predicted from gene sequence. Compared with E. coli JM109 (pEtac), the 1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase isoenzyme activity of the recombinant E. coli (pEtac-yqhD) reached 120 u/mg protein under the induction of 1.0 mmol/L IPTG at 37 degrees C for 4 hours; at similar conditions, enzyme activity of E. coli JM109 (pEtac) was only 0.5 u/mg protein. The recombinant E. coli JM109 (pUCtac-dhaB, pEtac-yqhD) was constructed. After induction with 1.0 mmol/L IPTG, the recombinant strain could transform 50 g/L glycerol to 38 g/L 1,3-propanediol under aerobic conditions. This work demonstrated firstly that the 1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase isoenzyme could show high activity under aerobic conditions.