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HEREDITAS(Beijing) ›› 2015, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (5): 494-498.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.15-040

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The function of PlcR in Bacillus anthracis vaccine strain A16R

Xiaolin Jia1, 2, Dongshu Wang2, Zhiqi Gao2, Erling Feng2, Jiping Zheng1, 3, Hengliang Wang2, Guiying Guo1, Xiankai Liu2   

  1. 1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Tropical Biological Resources, Hainan University, Haikou 570228,China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing 100071, China;
    3. Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bio-resources-State Key Laboratory Incubation Base, Haikou 570228, China
  • Received:2015-01-19 Online:2015-05-20 Published:2015-05-20

Abstract: Bacillus anthracis, B. thuringiensis and B. cereus are members of the B. cereus group. They share high genetic similarity. Whereas plcR (Phospholipase C regulator) usually encodes a functional pleiotropic activator protein in B. cereus and B. thuringiensis isolates, a characteristic nonsense mutation is found in all B. anthracis strains investigated, making the gene dysfunctional. To study the function of PlcR in B. anthracis, we used the B. cereus CMCC63301 genome as a template and constructed a recombinant expression plasmid pBE2A-plcR, and introduced it into the B. anthracis vaccine strain A16R, and then analyzed the activity of the hemolysin and sphingomyelinase. The results showed that transformation of B. anthracis with plasmid pBE2A-plcR carrying the native B. cereus plcR gene active the expression of sphingomyelinase gene, but did not activate expression of hemolysin genes of B. anthracis A16R.

Key words: Bacillus cereus, plcR, Bacillus anthracis, sphingomyelinase, hemolysin