[Gene diversity of the bacterial 48 family glycoside hydrolase (GH48) in rumen environment].

OBJECTIVE

The gene diversity of the bacterial 48 family glycoside hydrolase (GH48) in rumen environment was studied and new gene resources for efficient cellulose degradation were provided.

METHODS

A pair of gh48 degenerate primers was designed through sequences alignment of the gh48 gene sequences from ruminal Ruminococcus. The total DNA and RNA were extracted from two rumen samples and cDNA was synthetized through reverse transcription from total RNA. Four gh48 gene clone libraries were constructed and analyzed.

RESULTS

In total 455 gh48 gene sequences were obtained from the 4clone libraries. Sequence similarity among the 455 gene sequences varies between 58.65% and 100%. They fell into 66 species with the sequence similarity > or = 89%, and divided into 5 different clusters. OTU65 in cluster C represents an abundant gh48 gene which in both DNA and cDNA clones libraries, accounting for 36.4% and 19.5% respectively. Our study reveals rich gene diversity of the 48 family glycoside hydrolase and provided new gene resources for cellulose degradation.