MOLECULAR GENE CLONING OF NICOTINE-DEHIDROGENASE FROM THE pAO1 MEGAPLASMID OF ARTHROBACTER NICOTINOVORANS

Abstract

6-hydroxi-L-nicotine (6HNic) has an important potential as a drug for neuro-degenerative disorders and a  suitable simple and reliable method for obtaining contaminant-free 6HNic preparations is required. Here, we envision the in-vitro production of 6HNic by using purified nicotine-dehydrogenase (NDH) followed by HPLC or capillary electrophoresis techniques and we focus on the isolation and cloning of the three genes coding the NDH enzyme.  A PCR protocol was established for easy amplification and the DNA fragment containing the ndhLSM genes was directionally cloned into the pART2 vector