Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1995 Apr;177(7):1879–1882. doi: 10.1128/jb.177.7.1879-1882.1995

The umpA gene of Escherichia coli encodes phosphatidylglycerol:prolipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase (lgt) and regulates thymidylate synthase levels through translational coupling.

K Gan 1, K Sankaran 1, M G Williams 1, M Aldea 1, K E Rudd 1, S R Kushner 1, H C Wu 1
PMCID: PMC176820  PMID: 7896715

Abstract

Using a combination of biochemical, physical, and genetic techniques, we have shown that the umpA gene of Escherichia coli is allelic with the lgt (phosphatidylglycerol:prolipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase) of Salmonella typhimurium. These genes are essential for the viability of the respective organism and exhibit 92.8% sequence identity at the amino acid level. In E. coli, lgt and thyA (thymidylate synthase) form an operon. Thymidylate synthase levels are regulated by transcription from the lgt promoter and by translational coupling.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (232.7 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Aldea M., Claverie-Martín F., Díaz-Torres M. R., Kushner S. R. Transcript mapping using [35S]DNA probes, trichloroacetate solvent and dideoxy sequencing ladders: a rapid method for identification of transcriptional start points. Gene. 1988 May 15;65(1):101–110. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(88)90421-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Belfort M., Maley G., Pedersen-Lane J., Maley F. Primary structure of the Escherichia coli thyA gene and its thymidylate synthase product. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Aug;80(16):4914–4918. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.16.4914. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bell-Pedersen D., Galloway Salvo J. L., Belfort M. A transcription terminator in the thymidylate synthase (thyA) structural gene of Escherichia coli and construction of a viable thyA::Kmr deletion. J Bacteriol. 1991 Feb;173(3):1193–1200. doi: 10.1128/jb.173.3.1193-1200.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chung S. T., Greenberg G. R. Loss of an essential function of Escherichia coli by deletions in the thyA region. J Bacteriol. 1973 Dec;116(3):1145–1149. doi: 10.1128/jb.116.3.1145-1149.1973. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dimri G. P., Rudd K. E., Morgan M. K., Bayat H., Ames G. F. Physical mapping of repetitive extragenic palindromic sequences in Escherichia coli and phylogenetic distribution among Escherichia coli strains and other enteric bacteria. J Bacteriol. 1992 Jul;174(14):4583–4593. doi: 10.1128/jb.174.14.4583-4593.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gan K., Gupta S. D., Sankaran K., Schmid M. B., Wu H. C. Isolation and characterization of a temperature-sensitive mutant of Salmonella typhimurium defective in prolipoprotein modification. J Biol Chem. 1993 Aug 5;268(22):16544–16550. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lin J. J., Kanazawa H., Ozols J., Wu H. C. An Escherichia coli mutant with an amino acid alteration within the signal sequence of outer membrane prolipoprotein. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Oct;75(10):4891–4895. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.10.4891. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Sancar A., Hack A. M., Rupp W. D. Simple method for identification of plasmid-coded proteins. J Bacteriol. 1979 Jan;137(1):692–693. doi: 10.1128/jb.137.1.692-693.1979. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Sankaran K., Wu H. C. Lipid modification of bacterial prolipoprotein. Transfer of diacylglyceryl moiety from phosphatidylglycerol. J Biol Chem. 1994 Aug 5;269(31):19701–19706. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Schägger H., von Jagow G. Tricine-sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for the separation of proteins in the range from 1 to 100 kDa. Anal Biochem. 1987 Nov 1;166(2):368–379. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(87)90587-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Shibuya I., Hiraoka S. Cardiolipin synthase from Escherichia coli. Methods Enzymol. 1992;209:321–330. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(92)09040-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Williams M. G., Fortson M., Dykstra C. C., Jensen P., Kushner S. R. Identification and genetic mapping of the structural gene for an essential Escherichia coli membrane protein. J Bacteriol. 1989 Jan;171(1):565–568. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.1.565-568.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Yem D. W., Wu H. C. Physiological characterization of an Escherichia coli mutant altered in the structure of murein lipoprotein. J Bacteriol. 1978 Mar;133(3):1419–1426. doi: 10.1128/jb.133.3.1419-1426.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES