Lyase Activities of Heterologous CpcS and CpcT for Phycocyanin Holo-β-subunit from Arthrospira platensis in Escherichia coli

摘要

Arthrospira platensis is an economically important cyanobacterium;and it has been used widely in food and pharmaceu-tical industries. The phycocyanin (PC) from A. platensis is extremely valuable in medicine and molecular biology due to its anti-oxidation and anti-tumoring activity and applicability as fluorescence protein tag. In present study, two recombinant plasmids, one contained the phycocyanobilin (PCB)-producing genes (hox1 and pcyA) while the other contained the phycobiliprotein gene (cpcB) and the lyase gene (either cpcS/U or cpcT), were constructed and synchronically transferred into E. coli in order to test the the activi-ties of relevant lyases for catalysing PCB addition to CpcB during synthesizing fluorescent PC holo-β-subunit (β-PC) of A. platensis. As was evidenced by the fluorescence emitted at a peak specific for PC, CpcB was successfully synthesized in E. coli, to which co-expressed PCBs attached though at a relatively low efficiency. The results showed that the attachment of PCBs to CpcB were carried out mainly by co-expressed CpcS/U but CpcB also showed some autocatalytic activity. Currently, no CpcT activity was de-tected in this E. coli expression system. Further studies will be conducted to improve the efficiency of fluorescent PC synthesis in E. coli.