Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the role of midK, which encodes a protein similar to pyruvate carboxylase, in mimosine degradation by Rhizobium sp. strain TAL1145. The midK gene is located downstream of midR in the cluster of genes for mimosine degradation in Rhizobium sp. strain TAL1145. The midK mutants of TAL1145 degraded mimosine slower than the wild-type. These mutants could utilize pyruvate as a source of carbon, indicating that there is another pyruvate carboxylase (pyc) gene in TAL1145. Two classes of clones were isolated from the library of TAL1145 by complementing a pyc mutant of Rhizobium etli, one class contained midK, while the other carried pyc. Both midK and pyc of TAL1145 complemented the midK mutant for mimosine degradation, and also the R. etli pyc mutant for pyruvate utilization. The midK-encoded pyruvate carboxylase was required for an efficient conversion of mimosine into 3-hydroxy-4-pyridone (HP).
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dale Noel and Michael F. Dunn for providing the R. etli CE3 and R. etli 12–53, a pyc mutant of R. etli strain CE3, respectively. This research was supported by USDA-NRI Grant 2002-35107-11659.
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Communicated by Ursula Priefer.
Jonathan D. Awaya and Panlada Tittabutr contributed equally to this work.
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Awaya, J.D., Tittabutr, P., Li, Q.X. et al. Pyruvate carboxylase is involved in metabolism of mimosine by Rhizobium sp. strain TAL1145. Arch Microbiol 190, 409–415 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-008-0384-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-008-0384-4