Cloning, sequencing, and overexpression in Escherichia coli of a sarcosine oxidase-encoding gene linked to the Bacillus creatinase gene

Abstract

Bacillus sp. B-0618 produces both creatinase (Cre; creatine amidinohydrolase; EC 3.5.3.3) and sarcosine oxidase (Sox; EC 1.5.3.1) enzymes when grown in the presence of an inducer, choline chloride. A genomic library of Bacillus sp. B-0618, prepared in the plasmid vector pACYC184, was screened to obtain a gene ( sox) encoding Sox by a convenient colorimetric assay. A plasmid, pOXI101, isolated from a sox-positive clone, contained a 14.2-kb insert of Bacillus DNA. The nucleotide sequence of a 1.7-kb segment containing the sox gene was determined, and it was found that an open reading frame encoding a protein consisting of 390 amino acids was located upstream from the cre structural gene cloned previously. When a 1.6-kb XhoI- BglII fragment of pOXI101 was inserted into the pUC118 vector and introduced into Escherichia coli, transformants cultured in the absence of the inducer produced Sox about 50-fold more than Bacillus sp. B-0618 cultured in the presence of the inducer. The Bacillus Sox had the - 11Gly-X- 13Gly-X-X- 16Gly- sequence motif that is highly conserved in flavoproteins. We created an FAD-free Sox by changing 13Gly to Asp in the motif of the parental Sox by oligodeoxynucleotide-directed mutagenesis. The mutant protein no longer expressed the Sox activity, even on the addition of FAD.