Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

TheKlebsiella pneumoniae PII protein (glnB gene product) is not absolutely required for nitrogen regulation and is not involved in NifL-mediatednif gene regulation

  • Published:
Molecular and General Genetics MGG Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

The role of theKlebsiella pneumoniae PII protein (encoded byglnB) in nitrogen regulation has been studied using two classes ofglnB mutants. In Class I mutants PII appears not to be uridylylated in nitrogen-limiting conditions and in Class II mutants PII is not synthesised. The effects of these mutations on expression from nitrogen-regulated promoters indicate that PII is not absolutely required for nitrogen control. Furthermore the uridylylated form of PII(PII-UMP) plays a significant role in the response to changes in nitrogen status by counteracting the effect of PII on NtrB-mediated dephosphorylation of NtrC. PII is not involved in thenif-specific response to changes in nitrogen status mediated by NifL.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alvarez-Morales A, Dixon R, Merrick M (1984) Positive and negative control of theglnA ntrBC regulon inKlebsiella pneumoniae. EMBO J 3:501–507

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Arnott M, Sidoti C, Hill S, Merrick M (1989) Deletion analysis of the nitrogen fixation regulatory gene,nifL, ofKlebsiella pneumoniae. Arch Microbiol 151:180–182

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Austin S, Henderson N, Dixon R (1987) Requirements for transcriptional activation in vitro of the nitrogen-regulatedglnA andnifLA promoters fromKlebsiella pneumoniae: dependence on activator concentration. Mol Microbiol 1:92–100

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bender RA, Snyder PM, Bueno R, Quinto M, Magasanik B (1983) Nitrogen regulation system ofKlebsiella aerogenes: thenac gene. J Bacteriol 156:444–446

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brenchley JE, Prival MJ, Magasanik B (1973) Regulation of the synthesis of enzymes responsible for glutamate formation inKlebsiella aerogenes. J Biol Chem 218:6122–6128

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan-Wollaston V, Cannon MC, Beynon J, Cannon FC (1981) The role of thenifA gene product in the transcriptional regulation ofnif (nitrogen fixation) expression inKlebsiella pneumoniae. Nature 294:776–778

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bueno R, Pahel G, Magasanik B (1985) Role ofglnB andglnD gene products in regulation of theglnALG operon ofEscherichia coli. J Bacteriol 164:816–822

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Castano I, Bastarrachea F, Covarrubias AA (1988)gltBDF operon ofEscherichia coli. J Bacteriol 170:821–827

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon R (1984) Tandem promoters determine regulation of theKlebsiella pneumoniae glutamine synthetase (glnA) gene. Nucleic Acids Res 12:7811–7830

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon R, Kennedy C, Kondorosi A, Krishnapillai V, Merrick M (1977) Complementation analysis ofKlebsiella pneumoniae mutants defective in nitrogen fixation. Mol Gen Genet 157:189–198

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond M, Wootton J (1987) Sequence ofnifL fromKlebsiella pneumoniae: mode of action and relationship to two families of regulatory proteins. Mol Microbiol 1:37–44

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond M, Clements J, Merrick M, Dixon R (1983) Positive control and autogenous regulation of thenifLA promoter inKlebsiella pneumonia. Nature 301:302–307

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Drummond M, Whitty P, Wootton J (1986) Sequence and domain relationships ofntrC andnifA fromKlebsiella pneumoniae: homologies to other regulatory proteins. EMBO J 5:441–447

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Espin G, Alvarez-Morales A, Merrick M (1981) Complementation analysis ofglnA-linked mutations which affect nitrogen fixation inKlebsiella pneumoniae. Mol Gen Genet 184:213–217

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Foor F, Reuveny Z, Magasanik B (1980) Regulation of the synthesis of glutamine synthetase by the PII protein inKlebsiella aerogenes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 77:2636–2640

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Funanage VL, Brenchley JE (1977) Characterisation ofSalmonella typhimurium mutants with altered glutamine synthetase activity. Genetics 86:513–526

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ginsburg A, Stadtman ER (1973) Regulation of glutamine synthetase inEscherihia coli. In: Prusiner S, Stadtman ER (eds) The enzymes of glutamine metabolism. Academic Press, New York, pp 9–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes T, Merrick M, Dixon R (1985) Interaction of purified NtrC protein with nitrogen regulated promoters fromKlebsiella pneumoniae. Mol Gen Genet 201:492–498

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Holtel A, Merrick M (1988) Identification of theKlebsiella pneumoniae glnB gene: nucleotide sequence of wild type and mutant alleles. Mol Gen Genet 215:134–138

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Keener J, Kustu S (1988) Protein kinase and phosphoprotein phosphatase activities of nitrogen regulatory proteins NTRB and NTRC of enteric bacteria: Roles of the conserved amino-terminal domain of NTRC. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 85:4976–4980

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kleiner D, Paul W, Merrick MJ (1988) Construction of multicopy expression vectors for regulated overproduction of proteins inKlebsiella pneumoniae and other enteric bacteria. J Gen Microbiol 134:1779–1784

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leonardo JM, Goldberg RB (1980) Regulation of nitrogen metabolism in glutamine auxotrophs ofKlebsiella pneumoniae. J Bacteriol 142:99–110

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Macaluso A, Bender RA (1986) Regulation of the nitrogen assimilation control gene ofKlebsiella aerogenes. In: Abstracts of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, ASM, p 154

  • MacFarlane SA, Merrick MJ (1987) Analysis of theKlebsiella pneumoniae ntrB gene by site-directed in vitro mutagenesis. Mol Microbiol 1:133–142

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick MJ (1983) Nitrogen control of thenif regulon inKlebsiella pneumoniae: involvement of thentrA gene and analogies betweenntrC andnifA. EMBO J 2:39–44

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick M, Hill S, Hennecke H, Hahn M, Dixon R, Kennedy C (1982) Repressor properties of thenifL gene product inKlebsiella pneumoniae. Mol Gen Genet 185:75–81

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Minchin S, Henderson N, Dixon R (1988) The role of activator binding sites in transcriptional control of the divergently transcribednifF andnifLA promoters fromKlebsiella pneumoniae. Mol Microbiol 2:433–442

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nieuwkoop AJ, Baldauf SL, Huspeth MES, Bender RA (1988) Bidirectional promoter in thehut(P) region of the histidine utilisation (hut) operons fromKlebsiella aerogenes. J Bacteriol 170:2240–2246

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ninfa AJ, Magasanik B (1986) Covalent modification of theglnG product NRI by theglnL product NRII regulates transcription of theglnALG operon inEscherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83:5909–5913

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nixon BT, Ronson CW, Ausubel FM (1986) Two-component regulatory systems responsive to environmental stimuli share strongly conserved domains with the nitrogen assimilation regulatory genesntrB andntrC. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83:7850–7854

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pahel G, Zelenetz AD, Tyler B (1978)gltB gene and regulation of nitrogen metabolism by glutamine synthetase inEscherichia coli. J Bacteriol 133:139–148

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Prival MJ, Brenchley JE, Magasanik B (1973) Glutamine synthetase and the regulation of histidase formation inKlebsiella aerogenes. J Biol Chem 248:4334–4344

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reitzer LJ, Magasanik B (1985) Expression ofglnA inEscherichia coli is regulated at tandem promoters. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 82:1979–1983

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reitzer LJ, Magasanik B (1987) Ammonia assimilation and the biosynthesis of glutamine glutamate, aspartate, asparagine, L-alanine, and D-alanine. In: Neidhardt FC (ed)Escherichia coli andSalmonella typhimurium. Cellular and Molecular Biology, Vol. I. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, pp 302–320

    Google Scholar 

  • Son HS, Rhee SG (1987) Cascade control ofEscherichia coli glutamine synthetase. Purification and properties of PII protein and nucleotide sequence of its structural gene. J Biol Chem 262:8690–8695

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stadtman ER, Mura E, Chock PB, Rhee SG (1980) The interconvertible enzyme cascade that regulates glutamine synthetase activity. In: Mora J, Palacios R (eds) Glutamine: metabolism, enzymology and regulation. Academic Press, New York, pp 41–59

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AFRC Institute of Plant Science Research, Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory, University of Sussex, BN1 9RQ, Brighton, UK

    A. Holtel & M. J. Merrick

Authors
  1. A. Holtel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. J. Merrick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Communicated by H. Hennecke

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Holtel, A., Merrick, M.J. TheKlebsiella pneumoniae PII protein (glnB gene product) is not absolutely required for nitrogen regulation and is not involved in NifL-mediatednif gene regulation. Molec. Gen. Genet. 217, 474–480 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02464920

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02464920

Key words

Search

Navigation