Difference between revisions of "Part:BBa K523014"

Revision as of 16:42, 27 October 2011

Plac + LacZ + bglX

The E. coli periplasmic β-glucosidase gene bglX under the control of the lac promoter. The native ribosome binding site is present.

Usage and Biology

The BglX β-glucosidase is expected to be localised to the periplasm. It ought to be capable of breaking down cellobiose.

MUG/MUC experiment

We (Edinburgh 2011) conducted two assays, comparing the activity of this part (Plac-bglX) with that of the exoglucanase cex under the control of the lac promoter (BBa_K523016) on two different substrates:

• 4-methylumbelliferyl β- D- glucuronide (MUG, left photo). This substrate is a cellobiose analog.
• 4-methylumbelliferyl β- D- cellobioside (MUC, right photo). This substrate is larger and is more like a cellulose analog.

Both substrates produce a fluorescent product when cleaved. Our plates below show the results of placing cell lysate and cell debris on an MUG plate and an MUC plate. Present on both plates are:

• Left side of plate: lysate/debris from JM109 expressing this part, K523014
• Right side of plate: lysate/debris from JM109 expressing exoglucanase cex, BBa_K523016
• Bottom of plate: lysate/debris from JM109 cells

MUG assay. bglX on left, cex on right.		MUC assay. bglX on left, cex on right.

As can be seen, bglX is capable of degrading MUG (the cellobiose analog) while exoglucanase displays much weaker activity. By contrast, exoglucanase is much better at degrading MUC.

Inability to grow on cellobiose

We tested the ability of E. coli with this part to grow on minimal media with cellobiose as the only carbon source. It could not. By contrast, it did grow if glucose was the carbon source, showing that it is fundamentally capable of growing on minimal media.

Cellobiose as the only carbon source. K523014 fails to grow.		Glucose as the only carbon source. K523014 can grow.

Sequence and Features