Disease relevance of celA

• The celA gene encoding a beta-1,4 endoglucanase (CelA) from Myxococcus xanthus has been cloned in Escherichia coli and sequenced [1].
• The transcriptional start site of celA was mapped by extension and was found to be the same in Clostridium sp. and in E. coli expressing the cloned celA gene [2].
• Nucleotide sequence of the celA gene encoding a cellodextrinase of Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD-1 [3].
• In E. coli, the 5' end of celA mRNA was located 134 bp upstream from the initiation codon and 10 bp downstream from a sequence homologous to the consensus sequence of E. coli sigma 70 and Bacillus subtilis sigma 43 (formerly sigma 55) vegetative promoters [4].
• The celA gene was expressed in Escherichia coli, and the periplasmic endoglucanase was used for the characterization studies of the enzyme [5].

High impact information on celA

• Northern (RNA) blot analysis of RNA from Clostridium sp. revealed induction of transcription of the celA gene when barley beta-glucan was used as carbon source, while no celA mRNA was detected after growth on cellobiose [2].
• Recombinant Escherichia coli clones displaying thermostable beta-glucanase activity were isolated from two different gene libraries of the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima MSB8 (DSM 3109), and the nucleotide sequence of a 1,4-beta-glucanase gene designated celA was determined [6].
• Downstream of the celA gene we found a second open reading frame, celB, whose nucleotide sequence was 58% identical to celA [6].
• Expression in Escherichia coli of the Myxococcus xanthus gene celA, which encodes an extracellular endoglucanase, resulted in CelA being distributed between cytoplasm, periplasm and membrane [7].
• Cellobiose was also the only product detectable from hydrolysis of microcrystalline cellulose by the celA enzyme [8].

Biological context of celA

• The open reading frame of celA was 1830 base pairs and the enzyme was composed of 609 amino acids with a molecular weight of 63,617 Da [9].

References