PMID:21531796

Citation	Chandler, JC, Molins, CR, Petersen, JM and Belisle, JT (2011) Differential chitinase activity and production within Francisella species, subspecies, and subpopulations. J. Bacteriol. 193:3265-75
Abstract	Genotyping of Francisella tularensis (A1a, A1b, A2, and type B) and Francisella novicida has identified multiple differences between species and among F. tularensis subspecies and subpopulations. Variations in virulence, geographic distribution, and ecology are also known to exist among this group of bacteria, despite the >95% nucleotide identity in their genomes. This study expands the description of phenotypic differences by evaluating the ability of F. tularensis and F. novicida to degrade chitin analogs and produce active chitinases. Endochitinase activities were observed to vary among F. tularensis and F. novicida strains. The activity observed for F. tularensis strains was predominantly associated with whole-cell lysates, while the chitinase activity of F. novicida localized to the culture supernatant. In addition, the overall level of chitinase activity differed among the subpopulations of F. tularensis and between the species. Bioinformatic analyses identified two new putative chitinase genes (chiC and chiD), as well as the previously described chiA and chiB. However, the presence of these four open reading frames as intact genes or pseudogenes was found to differ between Francisella species and F. tularensis subspecies and subpopulations. Recombinant production of the putative chitinases and enzymatic evaluations revealed ChiA, ChiB, ChiC, and ChiD possessed dissimilar chitinase activities. These biochemical studies coupled with bioinformatic analyses and the evaluation of chiA and chiC knockouts in F. tularensis A1 and A2 strains, respectively, provided a molecular basis to explain the differential chitinase activities observed among the species and subpopulations of Francisella.
Links	PubMed PMC3133279 Online version:10.1128/JB.00093-11
Keywords	Chitin/metabolism; Chitinase/genetics; Chitinase/metabolism; Computational Biology; DNA, Bacterial/genetics; Francisella/enzymology; Francisella/genetics; Gene Knockout Techniques; Genes, Bacterial
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Annotations

Gene product	Qualifier	GO Term	Evidence Code	with/from	Aspect	Extension	Notes	Status
FRATM:B2SEL0		GO:0003824: catalytic activity	IDA: Inferred from Direct Assay:	F	Figure 4 shows kinetic activity of chiA, chiB, and chiC and a comparative graph	complete CACAO 4414

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