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. 1973 Nov;116(2):727–735. doi: 10.1128/jb.116.2.727-735.1973

Regulation of Leucine Biosynthesis in Bacillus subtilis

Jonathan B Ward Jr a,1, Stanley A Zahler a
PMCID: PMC285438  PMID: 4200854

Abstract

The biosynthesis of α-isopropylmalate (αIPM) synthetase, IPM isomerase, and βIPM dehydrogenase in Bacillus subtilis can be derepressed in leucine auxotrophs by limiting them for leucine. The derepression of the three enzymes is apparently coordinate. A class of mutants resistant to 4-azaleucine excretes leucine and has derepressed levels of all three enzymes. The azaleucine-resistance mutations may lie in a gene (azlA) encoding a repressor. Efforts to find mutations characteristic of a constitutive operator have been unsuccessful. No polar mutations have been found among nine leucine auxotrophs that have characteristics of frameshift mutations. The enzyme catalyzing the first step in leucine biosynthesis, αIPM synthetase, is sensitive to feedback inhibition by leucine. We conclude that leucine biosynthesis is controlled by the inhibition of the activity of the first biosynthetic enzyme by leucine, and by the repression of the synthesis of the first three biosynthetic enzymes by leucine. The repression of the three enzymes may be under the control of a single repressor and a single operator, or of a single repressor and a separate operator for each structural gene.

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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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