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The glycolytic genes pfk and pyk from Lactobacillus casei are induced by sugars transported by the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system and repressed by CcpA

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Abstract

In Lactobacillus casei BL23, phosphofructokinase activity was higher in cells utilizing sugars transported by the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS). The phosphofructokinase gene (pfk) was cloned from L. casei and shown to be clustered with the gene encoding pyruvate kinase (pyk). pfk and pyk genes are cotranscribed and induced upon growth on sugars transported by the PTS. Contrarily to the model proposed for Lactococcus lactis, where the global catabolite regulator protein (CcpA) is involved in PTS-induced transcription of pfk and pyk, a ccpA mutation resulted in a slight increase in pfk–pyk expression in L. casei. This weak regulation was evidenced by CcpA binding to a region of the pfk–pyk promoter which contained two cre sequences significantly deviated from the consensus. The PTS induction of pfk–pyk seems to be counteracted by the CcpA-mediated repression. Our results suggest that the need to accommodate the levels of pfk–pyk mRNA to the availability of sugars is fulfilled in L. casei by a PTS/CcpA-mediated signal transduction different from L. lactis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank CD Esteban for pET plasmids expressing L. casei CcpA and HPr. Manuel Zúñiga is acknowledged for valuable discussions. This work was supported by the BIO4-CT96-0380 European project and by funds of the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Project BIO2001-01616). Genome sequencing of L. casei BL23 was carried out at the University of Caen, Laboratoire de Microbiologie de l’Environnement and at the INRA Thiverval-Grignon, Microbiologie et Génétique Moléculaire, with the financial aide from the Region Basse Normandie and the INRA. RV was recipient of a fellowship from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia from Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnology Department, Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos, IATA-CSIC, P.O. Box 73, 46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain

    Rosa Viana, Gaspar Pérez-Martínez & Vicente Monedero

  2. Microbiologie et Génétique Moléculaire, CNRS-INRA-Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, UMR2585, 78850, Thiverval-Grignon, France

    Josef Deutscher

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  1. Rosa Viana
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Correspondence to Vicente Monedero.

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Viana, R., Pérez-Martínez, G., Deutscher, J. et al. The glycolytic genes pfk and pyk from Lactobacillus casei are induced by sugars transported by the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system and repressed by CcpA. Arch Microbiol 183, 385–393 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-005-0003-6

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