Abstract
Escherichia coli cells carrying the gltX351 allele are unable to grow at 42° C (Ts phenotype) due to an altered glutamyl-tRNA synthetase. We found that gltX351 cells display a new phenotype termed Gsd−, i.e. an inability to raise glutamine synthetase activity above low constitutive levels in minimal medium with 6.8 mM glutamine as sole nitrogen source. When 0.5 mM NH +4 or 12 mM glutamate replaced glutamine, the glutamine synthetase activities of gltX351 cells were raised to wildtype levels. Northern experiments showed that the Gsd− phenotype is the result of an impairment in transcription initiation from the Ntr-regulated promoter, glnAp2. Intragenic and extragenic secondary mutations appeared frequently in gltX351 cells, which suppressed their Gsd− but not their TS phenotype. Moreover, in heterozygous gltX +/gltX351 partial diploids, gltX351 was dominant for the Gsd− phenotype and recessive for the Tr phenotype. A slight increase in the glutamine pool and in the intracellular glutamine: 2-oxoglutarate ratio was also observed but this could not account for the Gsd− phenotype of gltX351 cells. In cells carrying gltX351 and a suppressor of the Gsd− phenotype, sup-1, tightly linked to gltX351, the glutamine pool and glutamine: 2-oxoglutarate intracellular ratio were even higher than in the gltX351 single mutant. These results indicate that the gltX351 mutant polypeptide may be the direct cause of the Gsd− phenotype. The possibility that it interacts with one or more components that trigger the Ntr response is discussed.
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Osorio, A.V., Camarena, L., Salazar, G. et al. Nitrogen regulation in an Escherichia coli strain with a temperature sensitive glutamyl-tRNA synthetase. Molec. Gen. Genet. 239, 400–408 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00276938
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00276938