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. 1979 Nov;140(2):597–606. doi: 10.1128/jb.140.2.597-606.1979

Glutamine synthetase mutations which affect expression of nitrogen fixation genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae.

F M Ausubel, S C Bird, K J Durbin, K A Janssen, R F Margolskee, A P Peskin
PMCID: PMC216687  PMID: 40960

Abstract

Previous studies have implicated glutamine synthetase (L-glutamate:ammonia ligase [adenosine diphosphate for-ing], EC 6.6.1.2) as a major controlling element of the nitrogen fixation (nif) genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae. We report here the isolation of a new class of K. pneumoniae mutants which exhibit altered patterns of nif and hut (histidine utlization) regulation. The expression of nif in these mutants, which were isolated as Gln+ (glutamine nonrequiring) revertants of a particular glnA mutation, is extremely sensitive to ammonia repression. These mutants have a Nif- Hut- phenotype at external ammonia concentrations at which wild-type strains are Nif+ Hut+. On the other hand, these mutants can be fully derepressed for nif at very low ammonia concentrations. We adopted the nomenclature "GlnR- (Nif- Hut-)" to facilitate discussion of the phenotype of these mutant strains. The mutations in these strains which confer the GlnR- phenotype map at or near glnA, the structural gene for glutamine synthetase.

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Selected References

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