''Arthrobacter luteus'' (ALU) is a species of

gram-positive bacteria In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. Gram-positive bact ...

in the genus '' Arthrobacter''. ''A. luteus'' is

facultatively anaerobic A facultative anaerobic organism is an organism that makes ATP by aerobic respiration if oxygen is present, but is capable of switching to fermentation if oxygen is absent. Some examples of facultatively anaerobic bacteria are ''Staphylococcus' ...

, pleomorphic, branching,

non-motile Sessility is the biological property of an organism describing its lack of a means of self-locomotion. Sessile organisms for which natural ''motility'' is absent are normally immobile. This is distinct from the botanical concept of sessility, ...

, non-sporulating, non-

acid-fast Acid-fastness is a physical property of certain bacterial and eukaryotic cells, as well as some sub-cellular structures, specifically their resistance to decolorization by acids during laboratory staining procedures. Once stained as part of a sam ...

, catalase-positive, and

rod-shaped A bacillus (), also called a bacilliform bacterium or often just a rod (when the context makes the sense clear), is a rod-shaped bacterium or archaeon. Bacilli are found in many different taxonomic groups of bacteria. However, the name ''Bacillu ...

(0.6–1.0 μm × 0.8–10.0 μm). A

restriction endonuclease A restriction enzyme, restriction endonuclease, REase, ENase or'' restrictase '' is an enzyme that cleaves DNA into fragments at or near specific recognition sites within molecules known as restriction sites. Restriction enzymes are one class o ...

enzyme is extracted from the bacterium and acts at the centre of a

palindromic A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Pana ...

tetranucleotide Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules w ...

sequence to give even-ended duplex DNA fragments

phosphorylated In chemistry, phosphorylation is the attachment of a phosphate group to a molecule or an ion. This process and its inverse, dephosphorylation, are common in biology and could be driven by natural selection. Text was copied from this source, whi ...

at the 5'-end. The restriction site ''Alu-I'' itself is a 4-base cutter: AG/CT. The Alu

retrotransposon Retrotransposons (also called Class I transposable elements or transposons via RNA intermediates) are a type of genetic component that copy and paste themselves into different genomic locations (transposon) by converting RNA back into DNA through ...

is named after the bacterium's abbreviation. The bacterium is also used to produce

zymolyase Zymolyase (also known as lyticase) is an enzyme mixture used to degrade the cell wall of yeast and form spheroplasts. Essential activities of zymolyase include β-1,3-glucan laminaripentao-hydrolase activity and β-1,3-glucanase activity. A commo ...

, which can degrade yeast cell wall.

Background

''Arthrobacter luteus'' was isolated from brewery sewage in research done in Takasaki, Japan in 1969. The team studied the bacteria isolated taxonomically and found them to be gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic, pleomorphic, branching, non-motile, non-sporulating, non-acid-fast, and catalase-positive rods. The bacteria also reduced nitrate, hydrolyzed starch and liquefied gelatin along with producing acids from carbohydrates. They then compared the isolated bacteria with 18 other strands of similar microorganisms and found to be in the genus ''Arthrobacter'', but no specific species was corresponded. Thus, the name "''Arthrobacter luteus''" was given to the isolates.

Research

An endonuclease restriction, which is a protein produced by bacteria that cleaves DNA at specific sites along the molecule, that occurs from ''Arthrobacter luteus'' has been isolated and the nucleotide sequence at the cleave site of the restriction isolated. The cleavage occurs at the center of the palindromic tetranucleotide sequence, which gives even-ended duplex DNA fragments phosphorylated at the 5’-end. A palindromic tetranucleotide is a sequence with 4 nucleotides that are able to be read the same backward as it is forwards. The restriction endonuclease cleaves

SV40 SV40 is an abbreviation for simian vacuolating virus 40 or simian virus 40, a polyomavirus that is found in both monkeys and humans. Like other polyomaviruses, SV40 is a DNA virus that has the potential to cause tumors in animals, but most often ...

form I DNA into 32 fragments, this is quite unusual since most others cleave much fewer than this. The Alu will then be used to digest the SV40 DNA. The fragments have been able to be arranged so that the physical cleavage map of the SV40 genome can be shown.

Characteristics of ''Arthrobacter luteus''

Morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics of ''Arthrobacter luteus'' are shown in the table below. Note: + = Positive - = Negative ± = Slight Production

References

Micrococcaceae Enzymes {{Actinobacteria-stub