Cloning, sequence analysis and expression in Escherichia coli of a gene encoding an alginate lyase from Pseudomonas...

A gene (aly) encoding alginate lyase (ALY; EC 4.2.2.3) was isolated from a library constructed with the cosmid vector pHC79 and Sau3AI-digested genomic DNA of Pseudomonas sp. OS-ALG-9. Successive subcloning of the aly-containing cosmid enabled us to locate the gene on a 2.3 kb HpaI fragment. Nucleotide sequencing of this fragment revealed a single open reading frame (ORF) of 1365 bp. The directly determined N-terminal amino acid sequence of the ALY protein purified from Pseudomonas sp. OS-ALG-9 was found in the amino acid sequence deduced from this ORF between nucleotides 282 and 366. Expression of aly was induced by IPTG in Escherichia coli and leakage of the enzyme into the extracellular milieu was significantly enhanced by addition of glycine to the growth medium. The ALY enzyme had a greater specificity for the homopolymer of mannuronate than for that of guluronate.