Enhancement of copper content and specific activity of CotA laccase from Bacillus licheniformis by coexpression with CopZ copper chaperone in E. coli.

Copper depletion of bacterial laccases obtained by heterologous expression in Escherichia coli is a common problem in production of these versatile biocatalysts. We demonstrate that coexpression of small soluble copper chaperones can mitigate this problem. The laccase CotA and the copper chaperone CopZ both from Bacillus licheniformis were used as model system.