摘要

Quorum sensing is a mechanism in which bacteria coordinate the expression of certain genes in response to their population density by producing, releasing and detecting signal molecules called autoinducers. Quorum sensing is responsible for controlling a plethora of virulence genes in several bacterial pathogens. Disruption of the quorum sensing system of Vibrio harveyi has been proposed as a new anti-infective strategy. AiiA is a protein which can block the bacterial quorum sensing by hydrolyzing AHL-lactone, and could greatly attenuate the disease caused by many bacterial pathogens in which quorum sensing regulate the expression of virulence genes. In this study, primers were designed from the conserved sequences of aiiA gene in the genomes of several Bacillus strains, and the gene was amplified from Bacillus thuringiensis BF1 by PCR. AiiA gene was cloned to a cloning vector pUC and sequenced. The open reading frame of the aiiA gene was 753 bp, and the similarity of aiiA gene from B. thuringiensis BF1 to other sequences in the GenBank was as high as 99%. This gene was subsequently cloned into an expression vector pET-24d(+), and the recombinant AiiA protein was overexpressed in Escherichia coli overexpression strain BL21 (DE3). The molecular weight of the expressed AiiA protein was estimated to be 28 kDa by SDS-PAGE. The optimized expression condition for the recombinant AiiA protein was at 25 degrees C for 6 h with 1 mM IPTG induction. The lysate of the recombinant E. coli could not only repress the pigment synthesize of the quorum sensing system reporter strain Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472, but also attenuate the intensity of bioluminescence of V. harveyi VIB391 by 85%. This study was very important for further research on the disruption of infections caused by V. harveyi in aquaculture.