Gene cloning of phenolic acid decarboxylase from Bacillus subtilis and expression in top-fermenting yeast strain

Phenolic acid decarboxylase ( PADC ) gene, encoding phenolic acid decarboxylase, was cloned from Bacillus subtilis and ligated with a shuttle vector YEp352 to generate a novel plasmid YPADC. By analysis of sequencing and the restriction endonuclease digestion, the validity of construction was proved. Subsequently, the new vector was successfully transformed into wild-type top-fermenting yeast strain W303-1A; the mutant yeast strain W303+padc was obtained, which was tested on the laboratoryscale mashing and fermentation experiments. At the end of fermentation, the results showed an obvious increase of 4-vinylguaiacol content in top-fermented beers brewed with mutant yeasts. The final 4-vinylguaiacol concentration obtained with wild-type and mutant yeasts was 1.20 and 1.70mg/l, respectively. Additionally, the level of esters produced by the mutant strain was higher than that of the wild-type; there were therefore a marked clove-like and ester aroma in top-fermented beers brewed with the former. However, no evident differences were found in brewing characteristic between wild-type and mutant strains, especially the ability of utilizing fermentable sugar and reducing diacetyl. Taken together, these approaches indicated the possibility of cloning PADC gene and enhancing the concentration of 4-vinylguaiacol in top-fermented beers.size. Keywords : Clone, phenolic acid decarboxylase, top-fermenting yeast, 4-vinylguaiacol African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(33), pp. 5284-5291, 16 August, 2010