Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1992 Jun;174(11):3474–3478. doi: 10.1128/jb.174.11.3474-3478.1992

Anaerobic induction of pyruvate formate-lyase gene expression is mediated by the ArcA and FNR proteins.

G Sawers 1, B Suppmann 1
PMCID: PMC206030  PMID: 1592804

Abstract

The pyruvate formate-lyase (pfl) gene of Escherichia coli is transcribed from seven promoters which are coordinately induced 12- to 15-fold by anaerobiosis. The FNR protein plays a major role in the anaerobic control of this system. A mutation in the fnr gene, however, only reduces anaerobic induction fivefold, indicating that FNR is not the only factor involved in the anaerobic activation process (Sawers and Böck, J. Bacteriol. 171:2485-2498, 1989). The residual anaerobic induction could be shown to be imparted by the transcriptional regulator ArcA; an arcA fnr double mutant was incapable of inducing pfl transcription anaerobically. A mutant strain unable to synthesize the membrane-associated histidine kinase (ArcB) that has been proposed to activate ArcA showed the same phenotype as an arcA mutant strain, indicating that a functional ArcB protein is also required for wild-type, anaerobic pfl transcriptional activation. Nuclease S1 analysis revealed that an arcA mutation abolished anaerobic transcription from promoter 7 and reduced expression from promoter 6 but did not affect transcription from promoters 1 to 5. On the other hand, an fnr mutation prevented anaerobic expression from promoters 6 and 7 and reduced transcription from promoters 1 to 5. These data indicate that both ArcA and FNR are essential for anaerobic activation of promoter 7 transcription, which suggests functional interaction between these proteins.

Full text

PDF
3474

Images in this article

3477Image
on p.3477
3477Image
on p.3477

Selected References

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

  1. Balch W. E., Wolfe R. S. New approach to the cultivation of methanogenic bacteria: 2-mercaptoethanesulfonic acid (HS-CoM)-dependent growth of Methanobacterium ruminantium in a pressureized atmosphere. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1976 Dec;32(6):781–791. doi: 10.1128/aem.32.6.781-791.1976. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Birkmann A., Sawers R. G., Böck A. Involvement of the ntrA gene product in the anaerobic metabolism of Escherichia coli. Mol Gen Genet. 1987 Dec;210(3):535–542. doi: 10.1007/BF00327209. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Casadaban M. J., Cohen S. N. Lactose genes fused to exogenous promoters in one step using a Mu-lac bacteriophage: in vivo probe for transcriptional control sequences. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Sep;76(9):4530–4533. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.9.4530. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Christiansen L., Pedersen S. Cloning, restriction endonuclease mapping and post-transcriptional regulation of rpsA, the structural gene for ribosomal protein S1. Mol Gen Genet. 1981;181(4):548–551. doi: 10.1007/BF00428751. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Collado-Vides J., Magasanik B., Gralla J. D. Control site location and transcriptional regulation in Escherichia coli. Microbiol Rev. 1991 Sep;55(3):371–394. doi: 10.1128/mr.55.3.371-394.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cotter P. A., Chepuri V., Gennis R. B., Gunsalus R. P. Cytochrome o (cyoABCDE) and d (cydAB) oxidase gene expression in Escherichia coli is regulated by oxygen, pH, and the fnr gene product. J Bacteriol. 1990 Nov;172(11):6333–6338. doi: 10.1128/jb.172.11.6333-6338.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Fu H. A., Iuchi S., Lin E. C. The requirement of ArcA and Fnr for peak expression of the cyd operon in Escherichia coli under microaerobic conditions. Mol Gen Genet. 1991 Apr;226(1-2):209–213. doi: 10.1007/BF00273605. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hansen H. G., Henning U. Regulation of pyruvate dehydrogenase activity in Escherichia coli K12. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1966 Aug 10;122(2):355–358. doi: 10.1016/0926-6593(66)90076-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Iuchi S., Cameron D. C., Lin E. C. A second global regulator gene (arcB) mediating repression of enzymes in aerobic pathways of Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1989 Feb;171(2):868–873. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.2.868-873.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Iuchi S., Furlong D., Lin E. C. Differentiation of arcA, arcB, and cpxA mutant phenotypes of Escherichia coli by sex pilus formation and enzyme regulation. J Bacteriol. 1989 May;171(5):2889–2893. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.5.2889-2893.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Iuchi S., Lin E. C. Adaptation of Escherichia coli to respiratory conditions: regulation of gene expression. Cell. 1991 Jul 12;66(1):5–7. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(91)90130-q. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Iuchi S., Matsuda Z., Fujiwara T., Lin E. C. The arcB gene of Escherichia coli encodes a sensor-regulator protein for anaerobic repression of the arc modulon. Mol Microbiol. 1990 May;4(5):715–727. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1990.tb00642.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Jamieson D. J., Higgins C. F. Anaerobic and leucine-dependent expression of a peptide transport gene in Salmonella typhimurium. J Bacteriol. 1984 Oct;160(1):131–136. doi: 10.1128/jb.160.1.131-136.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Knappe J., Sawers G. A radical-chemical route to acetyl-CoA: the anaerobically induced pyruvate formate-lyase system of Escherichia coli. FEMS Microbiol Rev. 1990 Aug;6(4):383–398. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1990.tb04108.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Raibaud O., Vidal-Ingigliardi D., Richet E. A complex nucleoprotein structure involved in activation of transcription of two divergent Escherichia coli promoters. J Mol Biol. 1989 Feb 5;205(3):471–485. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(89)90218-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Sawers G., Böck A. Anaerobic regulation of pyruvate formate-lyase from Escherichia coli K-12. J Bacteriol. 1988 Nov;170(11):5330–5336. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.11.5330-5336.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Sawers G., Böck A. Novel transcriptional control of the pyruvate formate-lyase gene: upstream regulatory sequences and multiple promoters regulate anaerobic expression. J Bacteriol. 1989 May;171(5):2485–2498. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.5.2485-2498.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Simons R. W., Houman F., Kleckner N. Improved single and multicopy lac-based cloning vectors for protein and operon fusions. Gene. 1987;53(1):85–96. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(87)90095-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Spiro S., Guest J. R. Adaptive responses to oxygen limitation in Escherichia coli. Trends Biochem Sci. 1991 Aug;16(8):310–314. doi: 10.1016/0968-0004(91)90125-f. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Spiro S., Guest J. R. FNR and its role in oxygen-regulated gene expression in Escherichia coli. FEMS Microbiol Rev. 1990 Aug;6(4):399–428. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1990.tb04109.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Stock J. B., Ninfa A. J., Stock A. M. Protein phosphorylation and regulation of adaptive responses in bacteria. Microbiol Rev. 1989 Dec;53(4):450–490. doi: 10.1128/mr.53.4.450-490.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Wagner A. F., Frey M., Neugebauer F. A., Schäfer W., Knappe J. The free radical in pyruvate formate-lyase is located on glycine-734. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Feb 1;89(3):996–1000. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.3.996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Zinoni F., Birkmann A., Stadtman T. C., Böck A. Nucleotide sequence and expression of the selenocysteine-containing polypeptide of formate dehydrogenase (formate-hydrogen-lyase-linked) from Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Jul;83(13):4650–4654. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.13.4650. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES