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. 1989 Jun;171(6):2919–2924. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.6.2919-2924.1989

Identification of the enzymatic basis for delta-aminolevulinic acid auxotrophy in a hemA mutant of Escherichia coli.

Y J Avissar 1, S I Beale 1
PMCID: PMC209995  PMID: 2656630

Abstract

The hemA mutation of Escherichia coli K-12 confers a requirement for delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA). Cell extract prepared from the hemA strain SASX41B was incapable of producing ALA from either glutamate or glutamyl-tRNA, whereas extract of the hem+ strain HB101 formed colorimetrically detectable amounts of ALA and transferred label from 1-[14C]glutamate and 3,4-[3H]glutamyl-tRNA to ALA. Extracts of both strains converted glutamate-1-semialdehyde to ALA and were capable of aminoacylating tRNAGlu. Glutamyl-tRNA formed by extracts of both strains could be converted to ALA by the extract of hem+ cells. The extract of hemA cells did not convert glutamyl-tRNA formed by either strain to ALA. However, the hemA cell extract, when supplemented in vitro with glutamyl-tRNA dehydrogenase isolated from Chlorella vulgaris cells, formed about as much ALA as did the unsupplemented hem+ cell extract. We conclude from these observations that the enzyme activity that is lacking in the ALA auxotrophic strain carrying the hemA mutation is that of glutamyl-tRNA dehydrogenase.

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Selected References

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

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