Cloning and Characterization of a Glyoxalase I Gene from the Osmotolerant Yeast Candida magnoliae

Glyoxalase I catalyzes the conversion of methylglyoxal to S-D-lactoylglutathione in the presence of glutathione. The structural gene of glyoxalase I (GLO1) was cloned from an osmotolerant yeast, Candida magnoliae, which produces a functional sweetener, erythritol, from sucrose. DNA sequence analysis revealed that the uninterrupted open reading frame (ORF) of C. magnoliae GLO1 (CmGLO1) spans 945 bp, corresponding to 315 amino acid residues, and shares 45.2% amino acid sequence identity to Saccharomyces cerevisiae Glo1. The cloned ORF in a multicopy constitutive expression plasmid complemented the glol mutation of S. cerevisiae, confirming that it encodes Glo1 in C. magnoliae. The responses of CmGLO1 to environmental stresses were different from those of S. cerevisiae, which only responds to osmotic stress. An enzyme activity assay and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction revealed that the expression of CmGLO1 is induced by stress inducers such as methylglyoxal, H 2 O 2 , KCI, and NaCl. The GenBank Accession No. for CmGLO1 is HM000001.