Genes involved in the biosynthesis of PQQ from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus

From a gene bank of the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus genome a plasmid was isolated that complements four different classes of PQQ- mutants. Subclones of this plasmid revealed that the four corresponding PQQ genes are located on a fragment of 5 kilobases. The nucleotide sequence of this 5 kb fragment was determined and by means of Tn5 insertion mutants the reading frames of the PQQ genes could be identified. Three of the PQQ genes code for proteins of Mr 29700 (gene I), Mr 10800 (gene II) and Mr 43600 (gene III) respectively. In the DNA region where gene IV was mapped however the largest possible reading frame encodes for a polypeptide of only 24 amino acids. A possible role for this small polypeptide will be discussed. Finally we show that expression of the four PQQ genes in Acinetobacter 1woffi and Escherichia coli lead to the synthesis of the coenzyme in these organisms.