Dataset Information

Sequencing and transcriptional analysis of the biosynthesis gene cluster of putrescine-producing Lactococcus lactis.

ABSTRACT: Lactococcus lactis is a prokaryotic microorganism with great importance as a culture starter and has become the model species among the lactic acid bacteria. The long and safe history of use of L. lactis in dairy fermentations has resulted in the classification of this species as GRAS (General Regarded As Safe) or QPS (Qualified Presumption of Safety). However, our group has identified several strains of L. lactis subsp. lactis and L. lactis subsp. cremoris that are able to produce putrescine from agmatine via the agmatine deiminase (AGDI) pathway. Putrescine is a biogenic amine that confers undesirable flavor characteristics and may even have toxic effects. The AGDI cluster of L. lactis is composed of a putative regulatory gene, aguR, followed by the genes (aguB, aguD, aguA, and aguC) encoding the catabolic enzymes. These genes are transcribed as an operon that is induced in the presence of agmatine. In some strains, an insertion (IS) element interrupts the transcription of the cluster, which results in a non-putrescine-producing phenotype. Based on this knowledge, a PCR-based test was developed in order to differentiate nonproducing L. lactis strains from those with a functional AGDI cluster. The analysis of the AGDI cluster and their flanking regions revealed that the capacity to produce putrescine via the AGDI pathway could be a specific characteristic that was lost during the adaptation to the milk environment by a process of reductive genome evolution.

SUBMITTER: Ladero V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3187148 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Sequencing and transcriptional analysis of the biosynthesis gene cluster of putrescine-producing Lactococcus lactis.

Ladero Victor V Rattray Fergal P FP Mayo Baltasar B Martín María Cruz MC Fernández María M Alvarez Miguel A MA

Applied and environmental microbiology 20110729 18

Lactococcus lactis is a prokaryotic microorganism with great importance as a culture starter and has become the model species among the lactic acid bacteria. The long and safe history of use of L. lactis in dairy fermentations has resulted in the classification of this species as GRAS (General Regarded As Safe) or QPS (Qualified Presumption of Safety). However, our group has identified several strains of L. lactis subsp. lactis and L. lactis subsp. cremoris that are able to produce putrescine fr ...[more]

PMID: 21803900

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundLactococcus lactis is widely used as a dairy starter and has been extensively studied. Based on the acquired knowledge on its physiology and metabolism, new applications have been envisaged and there is an increasing interest of using L. lactis as a cell factory. Plasmids constitute the main toolbox for L. lactis genetic engineering and most rely on antibiotic resistant markers for plasmid selection and maintenance. In this work, we have assessed the ability of the bacteriocin Lactococcin 972 (Lcn972) gene cluster to behave as a food-grade post-segregational killing system to stabilize recombinant plasmids in L. lactis in the absence of antibiotics. Lcn972 is a non-lantibiotic bacteriocin encoded by the 11-kbp plasmid pBL1 with a potent antimicrobial activity against Lactococcus.ResultsAttempts to clone the full lcn972 operon with its own promoter (P972), the structural gene lcn972 and the immunity genes orf2-orf3 in the unstable plasmid pIL252 failed and only plasmids with a mutated promoter were recovered. Alternatively, cloning under other constitutive promoters was approached and achieved, but bacteriocin production levels were lower than those provided by pBL1. Segregational stability studies revealed that the recombinant plasmids that yielded high bacteriocin titers were maintained for at least 200 generations without antibiotic selection. In the case of expression vectors such as pTRL1, the Lcn972 gene cluster also contributed to plasmid maintenance without compromising the production of the fluorescent mCherry protein. Furthermore, unstable Lcn972 recombinant plasmids became integrated into the chromosome through the activity of insertion sequences, supporting the notion that Lcn972 does apply a strong selective pressure against susceptible cells. Despite of it, the Lcn972 gene cluster was not enough to avoid the use of antibiotics to select plasmid-bearing cells right after transformation.ConclusionsInserting the Lcn972 cluster into segregational unstable plasmids prevents their lost by segregation and probable could be applied as an alternative to the use of antibiotics to support safer and more sustainable biotechnological applications of genetically engineered L. lactis.

Dataset Information

Sequencing and transcriptional analysis of the biosynthesis gene cluster of putrescine-producing Lactococcus lactis.

Publications

Sequencing and transcriptional analysis of the biosynthesis gene cluster of putrescine-producing Lactococcus lactis.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets