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The PQQ biosynthetic operons and their transcriptional regulation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

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Abstract

Gene PA1990 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, located downstream of pqqE and encoding a putative peptidase, was shown to be involved in excretion of PQQ into the culture supernatant. This gene is cotranscribed with the pqqABCDE cluster and was named pqqH. A PA1990::Kmr mutant (VK3) did not show any effect in growth behaviour; however, in contrast to the wild-type, no excretion of PQQ into the culture supernatant was observed. The putative pqqF gene of P. aeruginosa was shown to be essential for PQQ biosynthesis. A pqqF::Kmr mutant did not grow aerobically on ethanol, because of its inability to produce PQQ. Transcription of the pqqABCDEH operon was induced upon aerobic growth on ethanol, 1-propanol, 1,2-propanediol and 1-butanol, while on glycerol, succinate and acetate, transcription was low. Transcription of the pqqABCDEH operon was also found upon anoxic growth on ethanol with nitrate as electron acceptor, but no PQQ was produced. Expression of the pqqABCDEH operon is regulated at the transcriptional level. In contrast, the pqqF operon appeared to be transcribed constitutively at a very low level under all growth conditions studied.

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Abbreviations

cyt. c550 :

Cytochrome c550

Km:

Kanamycin

PQQ:

Pyrroloquinoline quinone

QEDH:

Quinoprotein ethanol dehydrogenase

WT:

Wild-type

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. E. Schwartz for the gift of plasmid pEDY305 and Dr. D. Jahn for the gift of plasmid pQF50. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GO 242/12-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BioGenes GmbH, Koepenicker Strasse 325, 12555, Berlin, Germany

    Nicole Gliese

  2. Fachgebiet Angewandte Biochemie, Institut für Biotechnologie, Technische Universität Berlin, Seestraße 13, 13353, Berlin, Germany

    Viola Khodaverdi & Helmut Görisch

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  1. Nicole Gliese
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  2. Viola Khodaverdi
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  3. Helmut Görisch
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Correspondence to Helmut Görisch.

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Communicated by Arnold Driessen.

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Gliese, N., Khodaverdi, V. & Görisch, H. The PQQ biosynthetic operons and their transcriptional regulation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Arch Microbiol 192, 1–14 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-009-0523-6

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