%0 Journal Article
%T BIOINFORMATICS AND BIOSYNTHESIS ANALYSIS OF CELLULOSE SYNTHASE OPERON IN ZYMOMONAS MOBILIS ZM4
%A Sheik Abdul Kader Sheik Asraf
%A K. Narayanan Rajnish
%A and Paramasamy Gunasekaran
%J The IIOAB Journal
%D 2011
%I Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology (IIOAB)
%X Biosynthesis of cellulose has been reported in many species of bacteria. The genes encoding cellulose biosynthetic enzymes of Z. mobilis have not been studied so far. Preliminary sequence analysis of the Z. mobilis ZM4 genome revealed the presence of a cellulose synthase operon comprised of Open Reading Frames (ORFs) ZMO01083 (bcsA), ZMO1084 (bcsB) and ZMO1085 (bcsC). The first gene of the operon bcsA encodes the cellulose synthase catalytic subunit BcsA. The second gene of the operon bcsB encodes the cellulose synthase subunit B (BcsB), which shows the presence of BcsB multi-domain and is inferred to bind c-di-GMP, the regulator of cellulose biosynthesis. The third gene of the operon bcsC encodes the cellulose synthase operon C domain protein (BcsC), which belongs to super family of teratrico peptide repeat (TPR) that are believed to mediate protein ¨C protein interactions for the formation of cellulose. Multiple sequence alignment of the deduced amino acid sequences of BcsA and BcsC with other closely related homologs showed the presence of PVDPYE, HAKAGNLN, DCD motif and TPR motif, the characteristic motifs of bacterial cellulose synthases. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of the ORF ZMO1085 and neighboring ORFs namely ZMO1083 and ZMO1084 indicated that all the ORFs are translationally linked and form an operon. Transcript analysis using Real-time PCR indicated the expression of the genes involved in cellulose synthase operon in Zymomonas mobilis ZM4. Z. mobilis colonies grown on RM-glucose containing Congo red displayed a characteristic bright red-brown colour. Z. mobilis colonies grown on RM-glucose medium supplemented with Calcoflour exhibited fluorescence. The arrangement of Calcofluor stained microfibrils can be seen in fluorescence microscopy which is an indicative for cellulose biosynthesis. AFM micrograph of the extracellular matrix of Z. mobilis shows a relatively dense matrix with bacterial cell residues. The presence of cellulose was confirmed by the Acetic-Nitric (Updegraff) Cellulose assay. The Bioinformatics and biosynthetic analysis confirm the biosynthesis of cellulose in Z. mobilis.
%K biosynthesis
%K cellulose
%K open reading frame
%K operon
%K transcript
%K Zymomonas mobilis
%U http://www.iioab.org/SPI-2%20%28IBT%29/Asraf%20et%20al-IIOABJ-2%283%29-%28SP2%29-1-7p.pdf