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Biochemical and genetic characterization of dehydrobiotin resistant mutants of Escherichia coli

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Summary

Dehydrobiotin (DHB) resistant mutants were isolated from strains of Escherichia coli K-12 and were classified into two groups; dhbA and dhbB.

In dhbB mutants the structural genes for enzymes of the biotin pathway are expressed constitutively at a high rate. The dhbB gene is co-transducible with argE at a frequency of about 50% by P1 transduction and maps on the chromosome between arg EC BH and rif. The dhbB + gene is trans-dominant over the mutant allele indicating that the dhbB + gene controls the production of a diffusible substance such as a repressor molecule.

The dhbA mutants show biotin biosynthetic activity comparable to the wild type and are as sensitive to repression by biotin as the parent strain. The mutants appear to be deficient in DHB transport as suggested by the findings that the ability of the mutants to take up biotin is reduced significantly and that DHB, a competitive inhibitor of biotin uptake, is much less inhibitory to biotin uptake in the mutants than in the wild type.

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  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    C. H. Pai

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Communicated by W. Maas

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Pai, C.H. Biochemical and genetic characterization of dehydrobiotin resistant mutants of Escherichia coli . Molec. gen. Genet. 134, 345–357 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00337469

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