Characterization and Cloning of ODAP Degrading Gene from a Soil Microbe

The strain BYT-1, capable of utilizing ODAP/DAP as a sole source of nitrogen and carbon was identified as Psuedomonas stutzeri by various microbial and biochemical tests. Transformation experiments showed that the ODAP utilizing property is encoded by the plasmid. Restriction of plasmid DNA with Pstl, followed by cloning of fragments and screening of ODAP containing medium, led to the isolation of a clone with insert size of ∼ 3.3 kb, which encoded ODAP metabolizing property. The growth and ODAP/DAP utilization by this clone (T₈) was almost similar to that of the wild type strain.