scholarly journals RamB, a Novel Transcriptional Regulator of Genes Involved in Acetate Metabolism of Corynebacterium glutamicum

2004 ◽  
Vol 186 (9) ◽  
pp. 2798-2809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gerstmeir ◽  
Annette Cramer ◽  
Petra Dangel ◽  
Steffen Schaffer ◽  
Bernhard J. Eikmanns

ABSTRACT The adaptation of Corynebacterium glutamicum to acetate as a carbon and energy source involves transcriptional regulation of the pta-ack operon coding for the acetate-activating enzymes phosphotransacetylase and acetate kinase and of the aceA and aceB genes coding for the glyoxylate cycle enzymes isocitrate lyase and malate synthase, respectively. Deletion and mutation analysis of the respective promoter regions led to the identification of highly conserved 13-bp motifs (AA/GAACTTTGCAAA) as cis-regulatory elements for expression of the pta-ack operon and the aceA and aceB genes. By use of DNA affinity chromatography, a 53-kDa protein specifically binding to the promoter/operator region of the pta-ack operon was purified. Mass spectrometry and peptide mass fingerprinting identified the protein as a putative transcriptional regulator (which was designated RamB). Purified His-tagged RamB protein was shown to bind specifically to both the pta-ack and the aceA/aceB promoter/operator regions. Directed deletion of the ramB gene in the genome of C. glutamicum resulted in mutant strain RG1. Whereas the wild type of C. glutamicum showed high-level specific activities of acetate kinase, phosphotransacetylase, isocitrate lyase, and malate synthase when grown on acetate and low-level specific activities when grown on glucose as sole carbon and energy sources, mutant RG1 showed high-level specific activities with all four enzymes irrespective of the substrate. Comparative transcriptional cat fusion experiments revealed that this deregulation takes place at the level of transcription. The results indicate that RamB is a negative transcriptional regulator of genes involved in acetate metabolism of C. glutamicum.

2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (7) ◽  
pp. 2554-2567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Cramer ◽  
Robert Gerstmeir ◽  
Steffen Schaffer ◽  
Michael Bott ◽  
Bernhard J. Eikmanns

ABSTRACT In Corynebacterium glutamicum, the acetate-activating enzymes phosphotransacetylase and acetate kinase and the glyoxylate cycle enzymes isocitrate lyase and malate synthase are coordinately up-regulated in the presence of acetate in the growth medium. This regulation is due to transcriptional control of the respective pta-ack operon and the aceA and aceB genes, brought about at least partly by the action of the negative transcriptional regulator RamB. Using cell extracts of C. glutamicum and employing DNA affinity chromatography, mass spectrometry, and peptide mass fingerprinting, we identified a LuxR-type transcriptional regulator, designated RamA, which binds to the pta-ack and aceA/aceB promoter regions. Inactivation of the ramA gene in the genome of C. glutamicum resulted in mutant RG2. This mutant was unable to grow on acetate as the sole carbon and energy source and, in comparison to the wild type of C. glutamicum, showed very low specific activities of phosphotransacetylase, acetate kinase, isocitrate lyase, and malate synthase, irrespective of the presence of acetate in the medium. Comparative transcriptional cat fusion experiments revealed that this deregulation takes place at the level of transcription. By electrophoretic mobility shift analysis, purified His-tagged RamA protein was shown to bind specifically to the pta-ack and the aceA/aceB promoter regions, and deletion and mutation studies revealed in both regions two binding motifs each consisting of tandem A/C/TG4-6T/C or AC4-5A/G/T stretches separated by four or five arbitrary nucleotides. Our data indicate that RamA represents a novel LuxR-type transcriptional activator of genes involved in acetate metabolism of C. glutamicum.


2009 ◽  
Vol 191 (23) ◽  
pp. 7260-7269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia C. Micklinghoff ◽  
Katrin J. Breitinger ◽  
Mascha Schmidt ◽  
Robert Geffers ◽  
Bernhard J. Eikmanns ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis generally is assumed to depend on lipids as a major carbon and energy source when persisting within the host. The utilization of fatty acids requires a functional glyoxylate cycle with the key enzymes isocitrate lyase (Icl) and malate synthase. The open reading frame Rv0465c of M. tuberculosis H37Rv encodes a protein with significant sequence similarity to the transcriptional regulator RamB, which in Corynebacterium glutamicum controls the expression of several genes involved in acetate metabolism, i.e., those encoding enzymes of acetate activation and the glyoxylate cycle. We show here that the M. tuberculosis Rv0465c protein can functionally complement RamB in C. glutamicum and that it binds to the promoter regions of M. tuberculosis icl1 and Rv0465c. Construction and subsequent transcriptional and enzymatic analysis of a defined Rv0465c deletion mutant in M. tuberculosis revealed that the Rv0465c protein, now designated RamB, represses icl1 expression during growth with glucose and negatively autoregulates the expression of its own operon. Whole-genome microarray analysis of the M. tuberculosis ramB (ramBMT ) mutant and the wild type furthermore showed that apart from icl1 and the ramBMT operon, the expression of all other M. tuberculosis genes involved in acetate metabolism remain unchanged in the mutant. Thus, RamBMT has a more specific regulatory function as RamB from C. glutamicum and is confined to expression control of icl1 and the ramBMT operon.


1997 ◽  
Vol 168 (4) ◽  
pp. 262-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker F. Wendisch ◽  
Marion Spies ◽  
D. J. Reinscheid ◽  
Stephanie Schnicke ◽  
Hermann Sahm ◽  
...  

2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (11) ◽  
pp. 3461-3468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruhiko Teramoto ◽  
Masayuki Inui ◽  
Hideaki Yukawa

ABSTRACT The utilization of the hydroaromatic compounds quinate and shikimate by Corynebacterium glutamicum was investigated. C. glutamicum grew well with either quinate or shikimate as the sole carbon source. The disruption of qsuD, encoding quinate/shikimate dehydrogenase, completely suppressed growth with either substrate but did not affect growth with glucose, indicating that the enzyme encoded by qsuD catalyzes the first step of the catabolism of quinate/shikimate but is not involved in the shikimate pathway required for the biosynthesis of various aromatic compounds. On the chromosome of C. glutamicum, the qsuD gene is located in a gene cluster also containing qsuA, qsuB, and qsuC genes, which are probably involved in the quinate/shikimate utilization pathway to form protocatechuate. Reverse transcriptase PCR analyses revealed that the expression of the qsuABCD genes was markedly induced during growth with either quinate or shikimate relative to expression during growth with glucose. The induction level by shikimate was significantly decreased by the disruption of qsuR, which is located immediately upstream of qsuA in the opposite direction and encodes a LysR-type transcriptional regulator, suggesting that QsuR acts as an activator of the qsuABCD genes. The high level of induction of qsuABCD genes by shikimate was still observed in the presence of glucose, and simultaneous consumption of glucose and shikimate during growth was observed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 189 (3) ◽  
pp. 1145-1149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Cramer ◽  
Marc Auchter ◽  
Julia Frunzke ◽  
Michael Bott ◽  
Bernhard J. Eikmanns

ABSTRACT In Corynebacterium glutamicum, the transcriptional regulator RamB negatively controls the expression of genes involved in acetate metabolism. Here we show that RamB represses its own expression by direct interaction with a 13-bp motif in the ramB promoter region. Additionally, ramB expression is subject to carbon source-dependent positive control by RamA.


2007 ◽  
Vol 189 (16) ◽  
pp. 5875-5884 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Ramírez-Trujillo ◽  
S. Encarnación ◽  
E. Salazar ◽  
A. García de los Santos ◽  
M. F. Dunn ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The genes encoding malate synthase (glcB) and isocitrate lyase (aceA) and a 240-bp open reading frame (SMc00767) located downstream of aceA were isolated and functionally characterized in Sinorhizobium meliloti. Independent and double interposon mutants of each gene were constructed, and the corresponding phenotypes were analyzed. aceA mutants failed to grow on acetate, and mutants deficient in SMc00767 were also affected in acetate utilization. In contrast, mutants deficient in glcB grew on acetate similar to wild-type strain Rm5000. Complementation experiments showed that aceA and SMc00767 gene constructs were able to restore the growth on acetate in the corresponding single mutants. aceA-glcB, aceA-SMc00767, and glcB-SMc00767 double knockouts were also unable to grow on acetate, but this ability was recovered when the wild-type aceA-glcB or aceA-SMc00767 loci were introduced into the double mutants. These data confirm the functional role of aceA and SMc00767 and show that glcB, in the absence of SMc00767, is required for acetate metabolism. Isocitrate lyase and malate synthase activities were measured in strain Rm5000, the mutant derivatives, and complemented strains. aceA and glcB were able to complement the enzymatic activity lacking in the corresponding single mutants. The enzymatic activities also showed that SMc00767 represses the activity of isocitrate lyase in cells grown on acetate. Gene fusions confirmed the repressor role of SMc00767, which regulates aceA expression at the transcriptional level. Comparison of the transcriptional profiles of the SMc00767 mutant and wild-type strain Rm5000 showed that SMc00767 represses the expression of a moderate number of open reading frames, including aceA; thus, we propose that SMc00767 is a novel repressor involved in acetate metabolism in S. meliloti. Genetic and functional analyses indicated that aceA and SMc00767 constitute a functional two-gene operon, which is conserved in other α-proteobacteria. Alfalfa plants infected with the aceA and glcB mutants were not impaired in nodulation or nitrogen fixation, and so the glyoxylate cycle is not required in the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis.


2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 406-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Lu ◽  
Yong-Rui Wu ◽  
Bin Han

Abstract The glyoxylate cycle is a modified form of the tricarboxylic acid cycle that converts C2 compounds into C4 dicarboxylic acids at plant developmental stages. By studying submerged rice seedlings, we revealed the activation of the glyoxylate cycle by identifying the increased transcripts of mRNAs of the genes of isocitrate lyase (ICL) and malate synthase (MS), two characteristic enzymes of the glyoxylate cycle. Northern blot analysis showed that ICL and MS were activated in the prolonged anaerobic environment. The activity assay of pyruvate decarboxylase and ICL in the submerged seedlings indicated an 8.8-fold and 3.5-fold increase over that in the unsubmerged seedlings, respectively. The activity assay of acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase in the submerged seedlings indicated a 3-fold increase over that in the unsubmerged seedlings, which is important for initiating acetate metabolism. Consequently, we concluded that the glyoxylate cycle was involved in acetate metabolism under anaerobic conditions.


2005 ◽  
Vol 187 (4) ◽  
pp. 1415-1425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Meister ◽  
Stephan Saum ◽  
Birgit E. Alber ◽  
Georg Fuchs

ABSTRACT Cell extracts of Rhodobacter capsulatus grown on acetate contained an apparent malate synthase activity but lacked isocitrate lyase activity. Therefore, R. capsulatus cannot use the glyoxylate cycle for acetate assimilation, and a different pathway must exist. It is shown that the apparent malate synthase activity is due to the combination of a malyl-coenzyme A (CoA) lyase and a malyl-CoA-hydrolyzing enzyme. Malyl-CoA lyase activity was 20-fold up-regulated in acetate-grown cells versus glucose-grown cells. Malyl-CoA lyase was purified 250-fold with a recovery of 6%. The enzyme catalyzed not only the reversible condensation of glyoxylate and acetyl-CoA to l-malyl-CoA but also the reversible condensation of glyoxylate and propionyl-CoA to β-methylmalyl-CoA. Enzyme activity was stimulated by divalent ions with preference for Mn2+ and was inhibited by EDTA. The N-terminal amino acid sequence was determined, and a corresponding gene coding for a 34.2-kDa protein was identified and designated mcl1. The native molecular mass of the purified protein was 195 ± 20 kDa, indicating a homohexameric composition. A homologous mcl1 gene was found in the genomes of the isocitrate lyase-negative bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides and Rhodospirillum rubrum in similar genomic environments. For Streptomyces coelicolor and Methylobacterium extorquens, mcl1 homologs are located within gene clusters implicated in acetate metabolism. We therefore propose that l-malyl-CoA/β-methylmalyl-CoA lyase encoded by mcl1 is involved in acetate assimilation by R. capsulatus and possibly other glyoxylate cycle-negative bacteria.


Marked differences in the rates of synthesis of several microbody (peroxisome) enzymes have been observed during the growth of Tetrahymena pyriformis (strain E) in shaking or static peptone medium. The specific activities of catalase and NADP + -isocitrate dehydrogenase, and of the mitochondrial enzyme fumarase, remained virtually constant during exponential growth under all conditions examined, whereas that of glycollate oxidase decreased dramatically in the course of growth. In contrast, isocitrate lyase and malate synthase were synthesized at increasing rates during growth on peptone medium with or without added acetate; highest specific activities were reached in late exponential to early stationary phase. The synthesis of these two enzymes, which appears to be coordinately regulated, was repressed in medium supplemented with glucose. Despite these variations in specific activity, glycollate oxidase as well as the key enzymes of the glyoxylate cycle remained associated with microbodies under all growth conditions tested.


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