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Title

 

 

 

 

 

Molecular cloning, sequence analysis and homology modelling of galE encoding UDP galactose 4­ epimerase of Aeromonas hydrophila

 

Authors

 

Shivani Agarwal 1, Keshav Gopal 1, Gagan Chhabra 2, Aparna Dixit 1,*

 

Affiliation

 

1 Gene Regulation Laboratory, School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi – 110067, India; 2 Gene Regulation Laboratory, National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi -110067, India

Email

 

adix2100@mail.jnu.ac.in

Article Type

 

Hypothesis

Date

 

Received October 24, 2009; Accepted November 15, 2009; Published November 17, 2009

Abstract

A. hydrophila, a ubiquitous gram-negative bacterium present in aquatic environments, has been implicated in illness in humans, fish and amphibians. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), a surface component of the outer membrane, are one of the main virulent factors of gram-negative bacteria. UDP-galactose 4-epimerase (GalE) catalyses the last step in the Leloir pathway of galactose metabolism and provides precursor for the biosynthesis of extracellular LPS and capsule. Due to its key role in LPS biosynthesis, it is a potential drug target. The present study describes cloning, sequence analysis and prediction of three dimensional structure of the deduced amino acid sequence of the  galE of A. hydrophila AH17. The cloned galE consists of the putative promoter-operator region, and an open reading frame of 338 amino acid residues. Sequence alignment and predicted 3D- structure revealed that the GalE of A. hydrophila consists of the signature sequences of the epimerase super family. The present study reports the molecular modeling / 3D-structure prediction of GalE of A. hydrophila. Further, the potential regions of the enzyme that can be targeted for drug design are identified.

 

Keywords

 Aeromonas hydrophila, lipopolysaccharide, virulence, UDP-galactose 4- epimerase, molecular phylogenetic

 

Citation

 

Agarwal et al., Bioinformation 4(5): 216-222 (2009)

Edited by

 

P. Kangueane

 

ISSN

 

0973-2063

 

Publisher

 

Biomedical Informatics

License

 

 

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.