Summary
Southern hybridization experiments strongly indicate that the regulatory region of theAzospirillum lipoferum nifH gene is located on a cloned 1.1 kbBamHI-XhoI restriction fragment. By cloning this fragment into a promoter-probe plasmid inEscherichia coli, a promoter was identified oriented towards thenifH gene. Using a set of several bacterial strains and plasmids, both NifA and the alternative σ factor, σ54, fromKlebsiella pneumoniae were shown to be required for the induction of the assumednifH promoter in this particular heterologous system. However, NtrC fromK. pneumoniae did not stimulate this promoter. No other promoter activity was detected in the direction opposite to the identified promoter, indicating that the transcription of the adjacentnifJ gene cannot be initiated from the 1.1 kbBamHI-XhoI fragment. Thus, the genesnifH andnifJ inA. lipoferum cannot be oriented divergently, in contrast to the situation in several other nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
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Tripathi, A.K., Kreutzer, R. & Klingmüller, W. Identification of a promoter dependent on NifA and σ54 upstream ofnifH inAzospirillum lipoferum . Molec. Gen. Genet. 227, 86–90 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00260711
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00260711