Isolation and characterization of a chitinase gene from entomopathogenic fungus Verticillium lecanii

Brazilian Journal of Microbiology

Yanping Zhu¹  Jieru Pan¹  Junzhi Qiu¹  Xiong Guan¹ 

[1] ,Ministry of Education Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Key Laboratory of Biopesticide and Chemical BiologyFuzhou,China

关键词: Chitinase;    Cloning;    Overexpression;    Homology modeling;    Verticillium lecanii;    quitinase;    clonagem;    modelagem por homologia;    Verticillium lecanii;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1517-83822008000200022

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

Entomopathogenic fungus Verticillium lecanii is a promising whitefly and aphid control agent. Chitinases secreted by this insect pathogen have considerable importance in the biological control of some insect pests. An endochitinase gene Vlchit1 from the fungus was cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The Vlchit1 gene not only contains an open reading frame (ORF) which encodes a protein of 423 amino acids (aa), but also is interrupted by three short introns. A homology modelling of Vlchit1 protein showed that the chitinase Vlchit1 has a (α/β)8 TIM barrel structure. Overexpression test and Enzymatic activity assay indicated that the Vlchit1 is a functional enzyme that can hydrolyze the chitin substrate, so the Vlchit1 gene can service as a useful gene source for genetic manipulation leading to strain improvement of entomopathogenic fungi or constructing new transgenic plants with resistance to various fungal and insects pests.

【 授权许可】

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