Isolation and characterization of genes encoding two chitinase enzymes from Serratia marcescens

Analysis of clones isolated from a cosmid DNA library indicates that the Serratia marcescens chromosome contains at least two genes, chiA and chiB, which encode distinct secreted forms of the enzyme chitinase. These genes have been characterized by inspection of chitinase activity and secreted proteins in Escherichia coli strains containing subclones of these cosmids. The two chitinase genes show no detectable homology to each other. DNA sequence analysis of one of the genes predicts an amino acid sequence with an N-terminal signal peptide typical of genes encoding secreted bacterial proteins. This gene was mutagenized by cloning a neomycin phosphotransferase gene within its coding region, and the insertion mutation was recombined into the parental S. marcescens strain. The resulting chiA mutant transconjugant showed reduced chitinase production, reduced inhibition of fungal spore germination and reduced biological control of a fungal plant pathogen.