Part:BBa_K1420001

merA, mercuric reductase from Serratia marcescens

Overview

Mercury resistant gene merA encodes a mercuric ion reductase, MerA, that couples with organomercurial lyase, MerB, to detoxify inorganic and organic mercury compound. While MerA and MerB are the key enzymes of mercury detoxification, they orchestrate with mercury transport proteins, MerT and MerP, to confer bacterial mercury resistance. Figure 1 shows the interactions of MerA and other proteins encoded by Mer Operon.

This figure is adpated from "Bacterial mercury resistance from atoms to ecosystems". Reference: T. Barkay et al. FEMS Microbiology Reviews 27 (2003) 355-384.

Function

MerA catalyzes the reduction of mercuric ion to the relative inert, volatile monoatomic mercury in a NADPH dependent reaction.

Scheme 1. MerA Catalyzed Reaction

Characterization of MerA

To test the effect of MerA to the level of mercury resistance, we generated a merA deletion mutant and characterized it by zone inhibition test. Zone of Inhibition Results Figure 2. Zone Inhibition Test For Mercury Resistance Activity. (A)ZOI of E. coli K12 strain containing pBBRBB::mer. (B) ZOI of E. coli K12 strain containing pBBRBB::gfp. (C)ZOI of E. coli K12 strain containing pBBRBB::merΔmerA.

Sequence and Features

Assembly Compatibility:

• 10
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
• 12
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
• 21
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]
• 23
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
• 25
  INCOMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]

  Illegal NgoMIV site found at 1201
  Illegal NgoMIV site found at 1249
  Illegal NgoMIV site found at 1311
  Illegal NgoMIV site found at 1522
  
• 1000
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]