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. 1980 Dec;144(3):1068–1075. doi: 10.1128/jb.144.3.1068-1075.1980

Histidine starvation and adenosine 5'-triphosphate depletion in chemotaxis of Salmonella typhimurium.

R J Galloway, B L Taylor
PMCID: PMC294772  PMID: 7002904

Abstract

Starvation for histidine prevented tumbling in Salmonella typhimurium hisF auxotrophs, including constantly tumbling strains with an additional mutation in cheB or cheZ. However, histidine-starved cheZs hisF strains were not defective in flagellar function or the tumbling mechanism since freshly starved auxotrophs tumbled in response to a variety of repellents. Tumbling in histidine-starved S. typhimurium could be restored in 13 s by addition of adenine or in 4 min by addition of histidine. Chloramphenicol did not prevent restoration of tumbling by these substances. Assays of adenosine 5'-triphosphate were performed based upon previous demonstration of adenine depletion in hisF auxotrophs starved for histidine. The adenosine 5'-triphosphate concentration dropped rapidly during the course of starvation, falling to less than 5% of the initial level as the cells ceased tumbling entirely. The change to smooth motility was prevented by 2-thiazolealanine, which inhibits phosphoribosyltransferase, thereby preventing adenine depletion during histidine starvation. These results suggest that an adenosine 5'-triphosphate deficiency was responsible for the change in tumbling frequency.

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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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