A food-grade expression/secretion vector for Lactococcus lactis that uses an alpha-galactosidase gene as a selection marker.

A new food-grade expression/secretion vector for lactococci, pFMN30, was developed using an alpha-galactosidase gene (melA) of Lactobacillus plantarum as a selection marker. The 4.9-kb pFMN30 is a derivative of the lactococcal vector pMG36e containing a broad-host-range replicon of pWV01. In Lactococcus lactis, transformants carrying the vector were easily detectable by the appearance of a blue colony on a X-alpha-gal-containing medium and also by the growth on a medium containing melibiose as a sole carbon source. The expression/secretion vector was equipped with the controllable and strong nisA promoter. In addition, usp45 signal peptide was inserted for the efficient secretion of a foreign protein outside cells. The vector pFMN30 was used for the expression and secretion of alpha-amylase as a reporter gene, lacking a signal sequence derived from Bacillus licheniformis in L. lactis. These results show that the food-grade expression/secretion vector constructed in the present study could be used for the production of foreign proteins in L. lactis for the production food materials and also for the medicinal purposes.