The use of culture-independent approaches, such as metagenomics, provides complementary access to environmental microbial diversity. Mangrove environments represent a highly complex system with plenty of opportunities for finding singular functions. In this study we performed a functional screening of fosmid libraries obtained from an oil contaminated mangrove site, with the purpose of identify...

An enzyme that hydrolyzes di-N-acetylchitobiose linkages in oligosaccharides and glycoproteins was purified to homogeneity from cultural filtrates of Streptomyces griseus. The molecular weight of the enzyme, determined by sedimentation equilibrium analysis, is 27,200 f ZOO, and it appears to consist of a single polypeptide chain. This apparent endo/3-N-acetylglucosaminidase was completely stabl...

BACKGROUND Vibrio harveyi GH20 β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (VhGlcNAcase) is a chitinolytic enzyme responsible for the successive degradation of chitin fragments to GlcNAc monomers, activating the onset of the chitin catabolic cascade in marine Vibrios. METHODS Two invariant acidic pairs (Asp303-Asp304 and Asp437-Glu438) of VhGlcNAcase were mutated using a site-directed mutagenesis strategy. The...

Bacillus anthracis spores, the infectious agents of anthrax, are notoriously difficult to remove from contaminated areas because they are resistant to many eradication methods. These resistance properties are due to the spore's dehydration and dormancy and to the multiple protective layers surrounding the spore core, one of which is the cortex. In order for B. anthracis spores to germinate and ...

Four glycopeptides were isolated from desialized orosomucoid following digestion with Pronase and chromatography on sulfoethyl cellulose. The structure of the major glycopeptide was studied with sequential hydrolysis with /3galactosidase, /3-acetylglucosaminidase, and a-mannosidase, as well as by oxidation with periodate. Evidence for a glycosylamine type linkage between aspartic acid and acety...

A beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase gene (nagA) of Streptomyces thermoviolaceus OPC-520 was cloned in Streptomyces lividans 66. The nucleotide sequence of the gene, which encodes NagA, revealed an open reading frame of 1,896 bp, encoding a protein with an Mr of 66, 329. The deduced primary structure of NagA was confirmed by comparison with the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the cloned beta-N-acet...

Two forms of Ox-L-fucosidase, deglycosylated and glycosylated, were found in the fucose-inducing culture broth of Fusarium oxysporum. Endo-p-N-acetylglucosaminidase was also found in the same culture broth. The deglycosylated a-L-fucosidase was purified from the culture broth to homogeneity on polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis and analytical ultracentrifugation. Purified deglycosylated a-...

The monosaccharide u&s most commonly found in glycoproteins are n-galactose, n-mannose, M-acetyl-u-glucosamine, sialic acid, and L-fucose. The hydrolysis of individual carbohydrate units by specific glycosidases is an excellent tool for studying the sequenbial arrangement and anomeric configuration of the carbohydrate units in the glycoproteins. In previous studies, cr-mannosidase (cr-u-mannosi...