Existence of a true phosphofructokinase in Bacillus sphaericus: Cloning and sequencing of the pfk gene

• Autores: Alice, A.F.; Pérez-Martínez, G.; Sáchez-Rivas, C.
• Año de publicación: 2002
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2002;68(12):6410-6415
• Materia: Diseases; Enzymes; Genes; Genetic engineering; Mosquito larvae; Microbiology; 6 phosphofructokinase; glycolytic enzyme; hexose; pentose; bacterium; article; Bacillus sphaericus; bacterial gene; bacterial strain; catalysis; disease transmission; entomopathogeny; enzyme activity; filariasis; gene sequence; malaria; molecular cloning; nonhuman; nucleotide sequence; pfk gene; phylogeny; sequence analysis; Amino Acid Sequence; Bacillus; Base Sequence; Cloning, Molecular; Genetic Complementation Test; Molecular Sequence Data; Phosphofructokinases; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Bacillus sphaericus; Bacteria (microorganisms); Posibacteria; Prokaryota
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales

Some strains of Bacillus sphaericus are entomopathogenic to mosquito larvae, which transmit diseases, such as filariasis and malaria, affecting millions of people worldwide. This species is unable to use hexoses and pentoses as unique carbon sources, which was proposed to be due to the lack of glycolytic enzymes, such as 6-phosphofructokinase (PFK). In this study, PFK activity was detected and the pfk gene was cloned and sequenced. Furthermore, this gene was shown to be present in strains belonging to all the homology groups of this heterogeneous species, in which PFK activity was also detected. A careful sequence analysis revealed the conservation of different catalytic and regulatory residues, as well as the enzyme's phylogenetic affiliation with the family of allosteric ATP-PFK enzymes.
Fil:Alice, A.F. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.