Expression and Characterization of CMCax Having β-1,4-Endoglucanase Activity from Acetobacter xylinum

The CMCax gene from Acetobacter xylinum ATCC 23769 was cloned and expressed in E. coli. With this gene, three gene products - mature CMCax, CMCax containing signal peptide(pre-CMCax), and a glutathione-S-transferase(GST)-CMCax fusion enzyme - were expressed. CMCax and pre-CMCax are aggregated to multimeric forms which showed high CMC hydrolysis activity, whereas GST-CMCax was less aggregated and showed lower activity, indicating that oligomerization of CMCax controbutes to the cellulose hydrolysis activity to achieve greater efficiency. The enzyme was identified to be an $\beta$-1,4-endoglucanase, which catalyzes the cleavage of internal $\beta$-1,4-glycosidic bonds of cellulose. The reaction products, cellobiose and cellotriose, from cellopentaose as a substrate, were identified by HPLC. Substrate specificity of cellotetraose by this enzyme was poor, and the reaction products consisted of glucose, cellobiose, and cellotriose in a very low yield. Theses results suggested that cellopentaose might be the oligosaccharide substrate consisting of the lowest number of glucose. The optimum pH of CMCax and pre CMCax was about 4.5, whereas that of GST-CMCas was rather broad at pH 4.5-8. The physiological significance of cellulose-hydrolyzing enzyme, CMCax, having such low $\beta$-1,4-endoglucanase activity and low optimum pH in cellulose-producing A. xylinum is not clearly known yet, but it seems to be closely related to the production of cellulose.