Skip to main content
PMC home page
The EMBO Journal logoLink to The EMBO Journal
. 1985 Oct;4(10):2425–2430. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03951.x

Expression of the nodulation gene nod C of Rhizobium meliloti in Escherichia coli: role of the nod C gene product in nodulation

Michael John 1, Jürgen Schmidt 1, Ursula Wieneke 1, Eva Kondorosi 1,2, Adam Kondorosi 1,3, Jeff Schell 1
PMCID: PMC554524  PMID: 15929218

Abstract

The nod C gene of Rhizobium meliloti encodes a protein of mol. wt. 44 000 which is highly conserved in at least three Rhizobium species. In order to overproduce this protein, a gene fusion of λcI repressor sequences to a large fragment of nod C was constructed. The fusion was placed under control of the tac promoter on plasmid pEA305 to yield pJS1035. IPTG-induced Escherichia coli cells harbouring pJS1035 accumulated the cI-nod C hybrid protein up to 19% of total cellular protein. The synthesis of the hybrid protein drastically inhibits the growth rate of the bacterium. The fusion protein was purified by gel and hydroxyapatite chromatography in the presence of SDS. Antibodies raised against the purified fusion protein precipitated the mol. wt. 44 000 nod C proteins of R. meliloti and of the broad-host range Rhizobium strain NGR234, which were both expressed in E. coli minicells. The hybrid protein is associated with the outer membrane of E. coli cells, and the cI-nod C fusion protein appears to be an integral membrane protein. Nodulation of alfalfa by R. meliloti and of clover by R. trifolii was markedly inhibited (˜50%) by the addition of antibodies against the hybrid protein to plant growth medium and inoculum.

Keywords: antibodies, gene expression, gene fusion, nod C gene, Rhizobium

Full text

PDF
2425

Images in this article

2426Fig. 2.
on p.2426
2426Fig. 3.
on p.2426
2427Fig. 4.
on p.2427
2427Fig. 5.
on p.2427
2427Fig. 6.
on p.2427
2428Fig. 7.
on p.2428

Selected References

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

  1. Amann E., Brosius J., Ptashne M. Vectors bearing a hybrid trp-lac promoter useful for regulated expression of cloned genes in Escherichia coli. Gene. 1983 Nov;25(2-3):167–178. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(83)90222-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Beringer J. E. R factor transfer in Rhizobium leguminosarum. J Gen Microbiol. 1974 Sep;84(1):188–198. doi: 10.1099/00221287-84-1-188. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bordier C. Phase separation of integral membrane proteins in Triton X-114 solution. J Biol Chem. 1981 Feb 25;256(4):1604–1607. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Brent R., Ptashne M. Mechanism of action of the lexA gene product. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Jul;78(7):4204–4208. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.7.4204. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Brosius J., Dull T. J., Sleeter D. D., Noller H. F. Gene organization and primary structure of a ribosomal RNA operon from Escherichia coli. J Mol Biol. 1981 May 15;148(2):107–127. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(81)90508-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bánfalvi Z., Sakanyan V., Koncz C., Kiss A., Dusha I., Kondorosi A. Location of nodulation and nitrogen fixation genes on a high molecular weight plasmid of R. meliloti. Mol Gen Genet. 1981;184(2):318–325. doi: 10.1007/BF00272925. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Dougan G., Sherratt D. The transposon Tn1 as a probe for studying ColE1 structure and function. Mol Gen Genet. 1977 Mar 7;151(2):151–160. doi: 10.1007/BF00338689. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ito K., Sato T., Yura T. Synthesis and assembly of the membrane proteins in E. coli. Cell. 1977 Jul;11(3):551–559. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(77)90073-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Kessler S. W. Rapid isolation of antigens from cells with a staphylococcal protein A-antibody adsorbent: parameters of the interaction of antibody-antigen complexes with protein A. J Immunol. 1975 Dec;115(6):1617–1624. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Laemmli U. K. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):680–685. doi: 10.1038/227680a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Miller T. J., Stone H. O. The rapid isolation of ribonuclease-free immunoglobulin G by protein A-sepharose affinity chromatography. J Immunol Methods. 1978;24(1-2):111–125. doi: 10.1016/0022-1759(78)90092-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Moore J. V., Dixon B. Metastasis of a transplantable mammary tumour in rats treated with cyclophosphamide and/or irradiation. Br J Cancer. 1977 Aug;36(2):221–226. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1977.181. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Moss B., Rosenblum E. N. Hydroxylapatite chromatography of protein-sodium dodecyl sulfate complexes. A new method for the separation of polypeptide subunits. J Biol Chem. 1972 Aug 25;247(16):5194–5198. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Nakamura K., Inouye M. Construction of versatile expression cloning vehicles using the lipoprotein gene of Escherichia coli. EMBO J. 1982;1(6):771–775. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1982.tb01244.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. OUCHTERLONY O. Diffusion-in-gel methods for immunological analysis. Prog Allergy. 1958;5:1–78. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Rosenberg C., Boistard P., Dénarié J., Casse-Delbart F. Genes controlling early and late functions in symbiosis are located on a megaplasmid in Rhizobium meliloti. Mol Gen Genet. 1981;184(2):326–333. doi: 10.1007/BF00272926. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Rossen L., Johnston A. W., Downie J. A. DNA sequence of the Rhizobium leguminosarum nodulation genes nodAB and C required for root hair curling. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Dec 21;12(24):9497–9508. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.24.9497. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Sauer R. T., Anderegg R. Primary structure of the lambda repressor. Biochemistry. 1978 Mar 21;17(6):1092–1100. doi: 10.1021/bi00599a024. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Sauer R. T. DNA sequence of the bacteriophage gama cI gene. Nature. 1978 Nov 16;276(5685):301–302. doi: 10.1038/276301a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Schmidt J., John M., Kondorosi E., Kondorosi A., Wieneke U., Schröder G., Schröder J., Schell J. Mapping of the protein-coding regions of Rhizobium meliloti common nodulation genes. EMBO J. 1984 Aug;3(8):1705–1711. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb02035.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Schröder J., Hillebrand A., Klipp W., Pühler A. Expression of plant tumor-specific proteins in minicells of Escherichia coli: a fusion protein of lysopine dehydrogenase with chloramphenicol acetyltransferase. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Oct 24;9(20):5187–5202. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.20.5187. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Shapiro S. Z., Young J. R. An immunochemical method for mRNA purification. Application to messenger RNA encoding trypanosome variable surface antigen. J Biol Chem. 1981 Feb 25;256(4):1495–1498. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Tommassen J., Leunissen J., van Damme-Jongsten M., Overduin P. Failure of E. coli K-12 to transport PhoE-LacZ hybrid proteins out of the cytoplasm. EMBO J. 1985 Apr;4(4):1041–1047. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03736.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Towbin H., Staehelin T., Gordon J. Electrophoretic transfer of proteins from polyacrylamide gels to nitrocellulose sheets: procedure and some applications. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Sep;76(9):4350–4354. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.9.4350. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Török I., Kondorosi E., Stepkowski T., Pósfai J., Kondorosi A. Nucleotide sequence of Rhizobium meliloti nodulation genes. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Dec 21;12(24):9509–9524. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.24.9509. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. de Boer H. A., Comstock L. J., Vasser M. The tac promoter: a functional hybrid derived from the trp and lac promoters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jan;80(1):21–25. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.1.21. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The EMBO Journal are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES