The enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase cleaves the ethylene precursor ACC into alpha-ketobutyrate and ammonia. The decreased level of ethylene allows the plant to be more resistant to a wide environmental stress including plant pathogens. In the present study, we characterized the ACC deaminase activity of a Pseudomonas entomophila strain PS-PJH isolated from the red pepper rhizosphere region of red pepper grown at Jinan, Korea. The isolate produced 23.8 +/- 0.4 micromol of alpha-ketobutyrate/mg of protein/h during ACC deamination under in vitro conditions. Polymerase chain reaction for acdS gene showed that the isolated P. entomophila strain PS-PJH carry sequences similar to the known acdS genes. Results of the multiple sequence alignment revealed >99% identity (nucleotide and amino acid) with acdS gene of Pseudomonas putida strains AM15 and UW4. The isolated bacteria promoted 43.3 and 34.1% of growth in Raphanus sativus and Lactuca sativa plants, respectively. Based on the 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer region sequences, the isolate was identified as P. entomophila. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study to report the acdS gene in P. entomophila.
