The expression of spinach glycolate oxidase (GO) in E. coli and the application of GO in the production of glyoxylic acid.

The complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) coding spinach glycolate oxidase (GO) was amplified by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), using the total ribonucleic acid (RNA) of spinach leaves as the template, and was cloned into cloning vector pMD18-T. After the DNA sequence was determined, the go gene was subcloned into Escherichia coli expression vectors. Sodium dodecyl sulfatepolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis showed that recombinant GO was expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3)(pTIG-Trx-GO) and E. coli BL21 (DE3)(pET-22b(+)-GO). The result of the enzyme activity assay and the oxidation of glycolate to glyoxylate catalyzed by the whole cells of E. coli BL21 (DE3)(pET- 22b(+)-GO) proved the feasibility of using E. coli cells to produce glyoxylic acid.