• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 1995

To investigate the role of induction on CGTase production for alkalophilic Bacillus firm us var. alkalophilus H609, the constitutive mutants that form a halo around its colonies at non-inducible AG agar media containing amylose and glucose were selected. The selected constitutive mutants could produce CGTase in the range of 18.9 to 28.8 units/ml $\cdot A_{600}$ in the alkaline basal medium, and finally a constitutive mutant Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus CM46 was selected. The constitutive nature of CM46 was also confirmed in protein level using SDS-PAGE. The effects of induction and catabolite repression for both parent strain Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus H609 and constitutive mutant CM46 were also compared by adding soluble starch and glucose during cultivation. The selected mutant CM46 was a non-inducible but a catabolite regulated type mutant. Even though inductive regulation was released, the specific CGTase activity defined as CGTase activity per cell concentration was not increased compared with that of parent strain. The cell growth and CGTase production patterns of constitutive mutant Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus CM46 were compared with the parent strain to identify CGTase production characteristics.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.656-659
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• 2001

Cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) (EC 2.4.1.19) use starch to produce cyclic maltooligosaccharides (cyclodextrins, CDs) which are of interest in various applications. To obtain a novel CGTase having high CD-forming activity, ${\beta}-cyclodextrin$ glucanotransferase $({\beta}-CGTase)$ from Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus was modified through site-directed mutagenesis and constructed five mutants, H59T, H59Q, Y96M, 9O-PPI-93, and ${\Delta}(148-154)D$, respectively. Y96M and ${\Delta}(148-154)D$ showed much higher level of conversion yields of starch into CDs from 28.6% to about 39% compared to wild-type ${\beta}-CGTase$, respectively, but 90-PPI-93 maintained similar convesion yields of starch to CDs. And their ${\beta}-CD$ ratios to total CDs were not changed and maintained, and convesion yields to linear maltooligosaccharides of all mutants were not changed significantly. These results indicates that five mutations of ${\beta}-CGTase$ from Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus appears to be important roles for increase of overall CD production rather than change of its product specificity, especially.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 1999

In order to investigate the critical amino acid residues involved in the catalytic activities of $\beta$-cyclodextrin glucanotransferase ($\beta$-CGTase) excreted by Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus, the amino acid residues in $\beta$-CGTase were modified by various site-specific amino acid modifying reagents. The cyclizing and amylolytic activities of $\beta$-CGTase were all seriously reduced after treatment with Woodward's reagent K (WRK) modifying aspartic/glutamic acid, N-bromosuccinimde (NBS) modifying tryptophan, and diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC) modifying histidine residues. The roles of tryptophan and histidine residues in $\beta$-CGTase were further investigated by measuring the protection effect of various substrates during chemical modification, comparing protein mobility in native and affinity polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis containing soluble starch, and comparing the $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ values of native and modified enzymes. Tryptophan residues were identified as affecting substrate-binding ability rather than influencing catalytic activities. On the other hand, histidine residues influenced catalytic ability rather than substrate-binding ability, plus histidine modification had an effect on shifting the optimum pH and pH stability.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.811-819
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• 1999

The ${\beta}-CGTase$ gene of alkalophilic Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus was cloned into E. coli using $pZErO^{TM}-2$ as a vector. The cloned gene encoded a total of 710 amino acid residues consisting of 674 amino acids of the matured protein and 36 amino acids of the signal peptide, including 20 amino acids from the lacZ gene in the vector. Although the cloned ${\beta}-CGTase$ gene did not contain the promoter and start codons, it was expressed by the lac promoter and lacZ start codon in the $pZErO^{TM}$ vector. A comparison was made with the amino acid sequence and ten other CGTases from Bacillus sp. Also, ten highly conserved regions, which are important amino acid residues in catalysis of CGTase, were identified. The lac promoter used for expression of the ${\beta}-CGTase$ gene was induced constitutively in recombinant E. coli even without IPTG possibly because of a lack of the lacI gene in both host and vector, repressing the lacZ gene in the lac operon. Its expression was catabolically repressed by glucose, however, its repression was reduced by soluble starch, mainly because of the extremely high increase of the cAMP level. ${\beta}-CGTase$ can be overproduced in the recombinant E. coli by maintaining intracellular cAMP levels mostly through the intermittent feeding of glucose during cultivation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.78-85
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• 1993

In order to elucidate the mechanism which regulates the production of cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) and to achieve overproduction of CGTase by releasing catabolite (glucose) repression, several catabolite repression resistant mutants were selected from newly screened Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus H609, after NTG (N-methyl-N -nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine) treatment, using 2-deoxyglucose as a nonmetabolizable analog of catabolite glucose and as a selection marker. Five catabolite repression resistant mutants were selected from about 30, 000 2-deoxyglucose resistant colonies. Relative catabolite repression indices of the selected mutants were in the range of 8~80% assuming 100% for parent strain. The amount of CGTase produced by the mutant strain CR41, which was 250 units/ml, was three times larger than that produced by its parent strain. The mutation seems to have occurred in the regulatory region of CGTase gene and not in the structural region or the glucose transporting system in cell membrane. The enzymatic properties of CGTase excreted from parent and mutant strains were also compared.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.753-759
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• 2002

$\beta$-Cyclodextrin glucanotransferase ($\beta$-CGTase) was overproduced extracellularly using recombinant E. coli by transforming the plasmid pECGT harboring a secretive signal peptide. The $\beta$-CGTase gene of alkalophilic Bacillus firmus var alkalophilus was inserted into the high expression vector pET20b(+) containing a secretive pelB signal peptide, and then transformed into E. coli BL2l(DE3)pLysS. The optimum culture conditions fer the overproduction of $\beta$-CGTase were determined to be TB medium containing 0.5% (w/v) soluble starch at post-induction temperature of $25^{\circ}C$. A significant amount of $\beta$-CGTase, up to 5.83 U/ml, which was nine times higher than that in the parent strain B. firmus var. alkalophilus, was overproduced in the extracellular compartment. A pH-stat fed-batch cultivation of the recombinant E. coli was also performed to achieve the secretive overproduction of $\beta$-CGTase at a high cell density, resulting in production of up to 21.6 U/ml of $\beta$-CGTase.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.119-124
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• 1993

An alkalophilic microorganism for overproduction of cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) was newly isolated from hot-water spring soil, and identified as Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus H609. The strain maintained stability during preservation and cultivation for the enzyme production, and produced significant amount of CGTase corresponding to the volumetric activity of 75 units/mL at 37C, initial pH of 11.2, and after 40 hours. The strain excreted several different proteins showing CGTase activity that catalyzed the formation of mainly beta-and Gamma-type cyclodextrin (ratio of 7:1) from soluble starch without accumulation of alpha-type. Other enzymatic properties were also investigated.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.323-330
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• 1998

Cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase) was purified from the culture broth of the Bacillus firmus var. alkalophilus, using ultrafiltration, starch adsorption/desorption, ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and gel filtration on Sephacryl HR-100. The molecular weight of the purified enzyme was determined as 77,000 by SDS-PAGE. The optimum pH and temperature for the CD synthesis were 6.0 and 5$0^{\circ}C$, respectively. The activity of this enzyme was stably kept at the range of pH 6.0～9.5 and up to 5$0^{\circ}C$. However, in the presence of $Ca^{2+}$, the optimum temperature for CD synthesis was shifted 55~6$0^{\circ}C$ and this enzyme was stable up to 6$0^{\circ}C$ because of the stabilizing effect of $Ca^{2+}$. The purified CGTase produced CDs with high conversion yields of 45~51% from sweet potato starch, com starch and amylopectin as substrate, especially, and the product ratio of $\beta$-CD to ${\gamma}$-CD was obtained at range of from 5.8:1 to 8.4:1 according to the kind of substrate. The purified enzyme produced mainly $\beta$-CD without accumulation of $\alpha$-CD during enzyme reaction using various starches as the substrate, indicating that the purified enzyme is the typical $\beta$-CGTase. The purified CGTase produced 25 g/l of CDs from 5.0% (w/v) liquefied com starch and the conversion yield of CDs was 50%, and the content of $\beta$-CD was 84% of total CDs after 8 hours under the optimum reaction condition.ion.