earticle

영어

Vitreoscilla Hemoglobin (VHb) is well known bacterial hemoglobin, it has a potential of broad biotechnological application. Many previous experiments proved positive effects of this protein on cellular events such as protein synthesis, cell growth, or energy metabolism in hypoxic
condition. We applied VHb to hydrogen production where O2 sensitivity of hydrogenase is one of the most intricate problems. With recombinant Escherichia coli BL21 over-expressing its own [NiFe] hydrogenase 1, which has been shown to possess active hydrogen producing ability,
we tested the hypothesis that VHb may enhance O2 tolerant hydrogen production by serving as an O2 diffusion barrier or O2 scavenger. We demonstrated that VHb co-expressing recombinant strain produced more hydrogen gas compared with the negative control and this effect was
a composite result of both O2-dependent and O2-independent processes. The possibility that the enhanced hydrogen production was by the promoted synthesis of recombinant [NiFe] hydrogenase 1 by VHb, was strongly excluded by the additional experiments. In conclusion, VHb
can be applied to biohydrogen production, giving the enhanced ‘apparent’ oxygen tolerant property.