glk, the structural gene for glucokinase of Escherichia coli, was cloned and sequenced. Overexpression of glk resulted in the synthesis of a cytoplasmic protein with a molecular weight of 35,000. The enzyme was purified, and its kinetic parameters were determined. Its K m values for glucose and ATP were 0.78 and 3.76 mM, respectively. Its V max was 158 U/mg of protein. A chromosomal glk-lacZ fusion was constructed and used to monitor glk expression. Under all conditions tested, only growth on glucose reduced the expression of glk by about 50%. A fruR mutation slightly increased the expression of glk-lacZ, whereas the overexpression of plasmid-encoded fruR ؉ weakly decreased expression. A FruR consensus binding motif was found 123 bp upstream of the potential transcriptional start site of glk. Overexpression of glk interfered with the expression of the maltose system. Repression was strongest in strains that exhibited constitutive mal gene expression due to endogenous induction and, in the absence of a functional MalK protein, the ATP-hydrolyzing subunit of the maltose transport system. It was least effective in wild-type strains growing on maltose or in strains constitutive for the maltose system due to a mutation in malT rendering the mal gene expression independent of inducer. This demonstrates that free internal glucose plays an essential role in the formation of the endogenous inducer of the maltose system.In Escherichia coli and most other bacteria, glucose is transported by the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS) as glucose-6-phosphate (53), thus eliminating the need for glucokinase in the utilization of glucose. In contrast, the utilization of glucose-containing disaccharides such as lactose, maltose, or trehalose involves the formation of glucose inside the cell and requires its phosphorylation for the effective utilization of the disaccharides. Surprisingly, the presence of a glk mutation (22) does not appear to be a disadvantage in the utilization of these disaccharides. Severe reduction in growth is observed only when, in addition to having the glk mutation, the strain also lacks the ability to phosphorylate glucose via the PTS pathway (14, 59). Two different findings might be relevant for this phenomenon. In the first, glucose and galactose, the products of intracellular -galactosidase action, have been found in large amounts outside the cell after the uptake of lactose, implying that growth on lactose is mediated via the uptake of the secreted products (PTS-mediated phosphorylation in the case of glucose) (35). In the second, internal phosphorylation of glucose by the PTS has been evoked (14). The findings indicate that the enzyme II Glc is also responsible for the utilization of internal glucose.As a consequence, the interest in E. coli glucokinase has been low. Glucokinase activity in E. coli was measured as early as 1953 (21), and MM6, an E. coli mutant defective in the utilization of glucose, was shown to contain normal amounts of glucokinase (4). In that study, the K m of...
