A new marine bacterial laccase with chloride-enhancing, alkaline-dependent activity and dye decolorization ability.

A bacterial laccase gene designated as lac21 was screened from a marine microbial metagenomic library of the South China Sea based on sequence screening strategy. The protein encoded by lac21 shared less than 40% sequence identities with all of the laccases found. Lac21, which was recombinantly expressed in Escherichia coli, showed high activity toward syringaldazine at an optimum pH of 7.