Cloning and expression analysis of Alkane monooxygenases from oil degrading Acinetobacte

Two Alkane monooxygenase genes (AlkB), AlkB1 and AlkB2 were cloned from two Acinetobacter strains, JH250-5 and JH250-8, which can degrade oil efficiently. AlkB1 exists in both strains, while AlkB2 exist in JH250-8 only. Bioinformatics analysis results showed that, two AlkB1s were highly homologous in DNA or amino acid sequence, and were very similar in predicted protein structure. AlkB2 of JH250-8 has no marked homology with AlkB1 in sequence, but is similar to AlkB1 in protein second structure, especially hydrophobicity. Semiquantitative PCR results showed that, expression of AlkB1 and AlkB2 from JH250-8 could be induced by oil or be blocked by rich medium, which indicated that AlkBs might take crucial roles in the oil degradation of microorganism.