Tripeptidase Gene (pepT) of Lactococcus lactis:Molecular Cloning and Nucleotide Sequencing of pepT and Construction of a Chromosomal Deletion Mutant

The gene encoding a tripeptidase (pepT) of lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris (formerly subsp. lactis) MG1363 was cloned from a genomic library in pUC19 and subsequently sequenced. The tripeptidase of L. lactis was shown to be homologous to PepT of Salmonella typhimurium with 47.4% identity in the deduced amino acid sequences. L. lactis PepT was enzymatically active in Escherichia coli and allowed growth of a peptidase-negative leucine-auxotrophic E. coli strain by liberation of Leu from a tripeptide. Using a two-step integration excision system, a pepT-negative mutant of L. lactis was constructed. No differences between the growth of the mutant and that of the wild-type strain in milk or in chemically defined medium with casein as the sole source of essential amino acids were observed.</p

Characterization of the Lactococcus lactis pepN gene encoding an aminopeptidase homologous to mammalian aminopeptidase N

The nucleotide sequence of the pepN gene from lactococcus lactis encoding a zinc-metallo aminopeptidase has been determined. The open reading frame of 2,538 base pairs encodes a protein with a calculated Mr of 95,368, which agrees with the apparent Mr of 95,000 of the gene product which was identified by polyclonal antibodies raised against the purified aminopeptidase. The amino acid sequence of the aminopeptidase of L. lactis was found to be similar to the corresponding enzymes of human, rat and mouse, with almost 30% of the residues identical. Also, a highly conserved area was identified which has similarity with the active site of thermolysin. A zinc-binding site, as well as the catalytic site for PepN, is predicted to lie within this conserved stretch. Putative promoter regions upstream of PepN were confirmed by primer extension analysis.