Biochemical and genetic characterization of β-1,3 glucanase from a deep subseafloor Laceyella putida

A β-1,3-glucanase (LpGluA) of deep subseafloor Laceyella putida JAM FM3001 was purified to homogeneity from culture broth. The molecular mass of the enzyme was around 36 kDa as judged by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). LpGluA hydrolyzed curdlan optimally at pH 4.2 and 80 °C. In spite of the high optimum temperature, LpGluA showed relatively low thermostability, which was stabilized by adding laminarin, xylan, colloidal chitin, pectin, and its related polysaccharides. The gene for LpGluA cloned by using degenerate primers was composed of 1236 bp encoding 411 amino acids. Production of both LpGluA and a chitinase (LpChiA; Shibasaki et al. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98, 7845-7853, 2014) was induced by adding N-acetylglucosamine (GluNAc) to a culture medium of strain JAM FM3001. Construction of expression vectors containing the gene for LpGluA and its flanking regions showed the existence of a putative repressor protein.