Cloning, Sequencing and Expression of the Gene Encoding Glucose Dehydrogenase from the Thermophilic Archaeon Thermoplasma Acidophilum

The gene encoding glucose dehydrogenase has been identified by Southern analysis of doubly restricted genomic Thermoplasma acidophilum DNA, using two redundant 17-residue oligonucleotide probes reverse translated from protein N-terminal sequence data. A 1670-bp BamH1-EcoR1 restriction fragment was ligated into pUC19 and pUC18 (constructs pTaGDH1 and pTaGDH2, respectively) and cloned in Escherichia coli. The sequence of the whole fragment was determined, and a 1059-bp open reading frame identified as the gene encoding glucose dehydrogenase. Cell-free extracts from E. coli carrying construct pTaGDH1 displayed glucose dehydrogenase activity indistinguishable from controls, but extracts from cells carrying pTaGDH2 displayed a 600-fold increase in glucose dehydrogenase activity. For high-level expression and purification of native protein, the glucose dehydrogenase coding sequence was subcloned into pMEX8. Glucose dehydrogenase purified from E. coli expressing the pMEX8 construct was indistinguishable by SDS/PAGE, N-terminal amino-acid sequence and kinetic analysis from the native enzyme purified from Tp. acidophilum. The derived 352-amino-acid sequence shows less than 20% identity with the glucose dehydrogenases of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus megaterium but, by comparison with other eubacterial and eukaryotic dehydrogenase sequences, a portion of its sequence has been tentatively identified as a cofactor-binding region.