Summary
Upon addition of excess one carbon metabolites (including serine) bacteria stop growing because of isoleucine starvation. After such treatment stringent bacteria rapidly resume normal growth whereas relaxed mutants remain unable for some time to grow. We show here that this is due to a lack of derepressibility of ilv genes after the starvation period. Results are also presented which show that RNA polymerase structural mutants may be selected among the clones resistant to a mixture of serine, methionine and glycine, in relA -strains. Finally circumstancial evidence suggests that the one carbon metabolism may be involved in a process controlling isoleucine metabolism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alföldi, L., Kerekes, E.: Neutralization of the amino acid sensitivity of RCrel Escherichia coli. Biochim. biophys. Acta (Amst.) 91, 155–157 (1964)
Alföldi, L., Stent, G.S., Hoogs, M., Hill, R.: Physiological effects of the RNA control (RC) gene in E. coli. Z. Vererbungsl. 94, 285–302 (1963)
Bachman, B.J., Low, K.B., Taylor, A.L.: Recalibrated linkage map of Escherichia coli K-12. Bact. Rev. 40, 116–167 (1976)
Barman, T.E.: Enzyme Handbook. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer 1974
Baumstarl, B.R., Spremulli, L.L., RajBhandary, U.L., Brown, G.M.: Initiation of protein synthesis without formylation in a mutant of Escherichia coli that grows in the absence of tetrahydrofolate. J. Bact. 129, 457–471 (1977)
Brenchley, J.E., Williams, L.S.: Transfer RNA involvement in the regulation of enzyme synthesis. Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 29, 251–274 (1975)
Bresalier, R.S., Rizzino, A.A., Freunlich, M.: Reduced maximal level of derepression of the isoleucine-valine and leucine enzymes in hisT mutants of Salmonella thyphimurium. Nature (Lond.) 253, 279–280 (1975)
Bruni, C.B., Colantuoni, V., Sbordone, L., Cortese, R., Blasi, F.: Biochemical and regulatory properties of Escherichia coli K-12 hisT mutant. J. Bact. 130, 4–10 (1977)
Cashel, M.: The control of ribonucleic acid synthesis in Escherichia coli. IV Relevance of unusual phosphorylated compounds from amino acid-strarved stringent strains. J. biol. Chem. 244, 3133–3141 (1969)
Cashel, M.: Regulation of bacterial ppGpp and pppGpp. Ann. Rev. Microbiol. 29, 301–318 (1975)
Changeux, J.P.: Sur les propriétés allostériques de la L-threonine desaminase de biosynthèse. III Interprétation de l'effet inhibiteur de la L-isoleucine: empêchement stérique ou effect allostérique. Bull. Soc. Chim. biol. (Paris) 46, 1151–1173 (1964)
Cosloy, S.D., McFall, E.: L-serine-sensitive mutants of Escherichia coli K-12. J. Bact. 103, 840–841 (1970)
Cosloy, S.D., McFall, E.: Metabolism of D-serine in Escherichia coli K-12: mechanism of growth inhibition. J. Bact. 114, 685–694 (1973)
Cohen, B.M., Jones, E.W.: New map location of ilvO in Escherichia coli. Genetics 83, 201–225 (1976)
Danchin, A.: A new technique for selection of sensitive and auxotrophic mutants of E. coli: isolation of a strain sensitive to an excess of one carbon metabolites. Molec. gen. Genet. 150, 293–299 (1977)
Edlin, G., Broda, P.: Physiology and genetics of the “ribonucleic acid control” locus in Escherichia coli. Bact. Rev. 32, 206–226 (1968)
Favre, R., Viater, A., Puppo, S., Iaccarino, M., Noelle, R., Freunlich, M.: Expression of a valine-resistant acetolactate synthase activity mediated by the ilvO and ilvG genes of Escherichia coli K-12. Molec. gen. Genet. 143, 243–252 (1976)
Fiil, N., Friesen, J.D.: Isolation of relaxed mutants of Escherichia coli. J. Bact. 95, 729–731 (1968)
Fraser, J., Newman, E.A.: Derivation of glycine from threonine in E. coli K-12 mutants. J. Bact. 122, 810–817 (1975)
Feunlich, M.: Cyclic AMP can replace the relA -dependent requirement for derepression of acetohydroxy acid synthase in E. coli K-12. Cell. 12, 1121–1126 (1977)
Furano, A.V., Wittel, F.P.: Effect of the relA gene on derepression of amino-acid biosynthesis enzymes in growing Escherichia coli depends on the pathway being derepressed. J. Bact. 132, 352–355 (1977)
Gallant, J., Shell, L., Bittner, R.: A novel nucleotide implicated in the response of E. coli to energy source downshift. Cell 7, 75–84 (1976)
Guardiola, J.: Requirement of the newly recognized ilvJ gene for the expression of a valine transaminase activity in E. coli K-12. Molec. gen. Genet. 158, 157–164 (1977)
Guardiola, J., Felice, M. De, Klopotowski, T., Iaccarino, M.: Multiplicity of isoleucine leucine, and valine transport systems in Escherichia coli K-12. J. Bact. 117, 383–392 (1974)
Kavanagh, F.: Antibiotic assays — principles and precautions. In: Methods in enzymology XLIII, pp. 55–69. New York: Academic Press 1975
Lawther, R.P., Hatfield, G.W.: Biochemical characterization of an Escherichia coli hisT strain. J. Bact. 130, 552–557 (1977)
Lo Schiavo, F., Favre, R., Kasal, T., Cascino, A., Guardiola, J., Caro, L., Iaccarino, M.: The Φ80 λdilv phage and its use to detect messenger RNA related to isoleucine-valine metabolism. J. molec. Biol. 99, 353–368 (1975)
Miller, J.H.: Experiment in molecular genetics. New York: Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory 1974
Morse, D.E., Morse, A.N.C.: Dual control on the tryptophan operon is mediated by both tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase and the repressor. J. molec. Biol. 103, 209–226 (1976)
Moyed, H.S.: Induced phenotypic resistance to an antimetabolite. Science 131, 1449 (1960)
Quay, S.C., Dick, T.E., Oxender, D.L.: Role of transport systems in amino acid metabolism: leucine toxicity and the branched chain amino acid transport systems. J. Bact. 129, 1257–1265 (1977)
Ramakrishnan, T., Adelberg, E.A.: Regulatory mechanisms in the biosynthesis of isoleucine and valine. III. Map order of the structural genes and operator genes. J. Bact 89, 661–664 (1964)
Raskó, I., Alföldi, L.: Biosynthetic L-threonine deaminase as the origin of L-serine sensitivity of Escherichia coli. Europ. J. Biochem. 21, 424–427 (1971)
Roth, J.R., Anton, D.N., Hartman, P.E.: Histidine regulatory mutants in Salmonella thyphimurium. I. Isolation and general properties. J. molec. Biol. 22, 305–323 (1966)
Singer, C.E., Smith, G.R., Cortese, R., Ames, B.N.: Mutant tRNAHis ineffective in repression and lacking two pseudouridine modifications. Nature (Lond.) New Biol 238, 72–74 (1972)
Sommerville, C.R., Ahmed, A.: rel-dependent methionine requirement in revertants of a methionyl-transfer RNA synthetase mutant of Escherichia coli. J. molec. Biol. 111 77–81 (1977)
Stephens, J.C., Artz, S.W., Ames, B.N.: Guanosine 5′-diphosphate 3′-diphosphate (ppGpp): Positive effector for histidine operon transcription and general signal for amino-acid deficiency. Proc. nat. Acad. Sci. (Wash.) 72, 4389–4393 (1975)
Uzan, M., Danchin, A.: A rapid test for the relA -mutation in E. coli. Biochem. biophys. Res. Commun. 69, 751–758 (1976)
Wild, J., Smith, J.M., Umbarger, H.E.: In vitro synthesis of β-galactosidase with ilv-lac fusion deoxyribonucleic acid as template. J. Bact. 132, 876–883 (1977)
Wrinkler, M.E., Roth, D.J., Hartman: Promotor and attenuator related metabolic regulation of the Salmonella thyphimurium his operon. J. Bact 133, 830–843 (1978)
Yang, H.L., Zubay, G., Urm, E., Reiness, G., Cashel, M.: Effect of guanosine tetraphosphate, guanosine pentaphosphate, and β-γ methylenyl-guanosine penta-phosphate on gene expression of Escherichia coli in vitro. Proc. nat. Acad. Sci. (Wash.) 71, 63–67 (1974)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by E. Bautz
Abbreviations: Throughout this work we have represented the mixture of amino acids serine, methionine and glycine (1 mM each) by the letters SMG. Para amino benzoic acid represented by the letters PABA
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Uzan, M., Danchin, A. Correlation between the serine sensitivity and the derepressibility of the ilv genes in Escherichia coli relA −mutants. Molec. Gen. Genet. 165, 21–30 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00270372
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00270372