Haemophilus influenzae has an absolute requirement for NAD (factor V) because it lacks almost all the biosynthetic enzymes necessary for the de novo synthesis of that cofactor. Factor V can be provided as either nicotinamide adenosine dinucleotide (NAD), nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), or nicotinamide riboside (NR) in vitro, but little is known about the source or the mechanism of uptake of these substrates in vivo. As shown by us earlier, at least two gene products are involved in the uptake of NAD, the outer membrane lipoprotein e (P4), which has phosphatase activity and is encoded by hel, and a periplasmic NAD nucleotidase, encoded by nadN. It has also been observed that the latter gene product is essential for H. influenzae growth on media supplemented with NAD. In this report, we describe the functions and substrates of these two proteins as they act together in an NAD utilization pathway. Data are provided which indicate that NadN harbors not only NAD pyrophosphatase but also NMN 5-nucleotidase activity. The e (P4) protein is also shown to have NMN 5-nucleotidase activity, recognizing NMN as a substrate and releasing NR as its product. Insertion mutants of nadN or deletion and site-directed mutants of hel had attenuated growth and a reduced uptake phenotype when NMN served as substrate. A hel and nadN double mutant was only able to grow in the presence of NR, whereas no uptake of NMN was observed.Haemophilus influenzae, a gram-negative facultative anaerobic bacterium, is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality in young children (9, 35). In order to cultivate H. influenzae, complex medium is required, and if it is not blood based, it must contain two growth factors: nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and hemin (6). Early biochemical investigations established that nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and nicotinamide riboside (NR) can substitute for NAD, whereas nicotinamide, niacin, or other nicotine-based intermediates of the Preiss-Handler pathway cannot (10, 20, 31). The NAD dependency of H. influenzae was confirmed by the absence of the genes encoding the enzymes necessary for the de novo biosynthesis of NAD (8). Accumulation of nicotinamide nucleotides derived from NAD or NR has been demonstrated in H. influenzae and Haemophilus parainfluenzae (4, 11). For H. parainfluenzae the K m for transport is about 0.55 M for NAD and 0.14 M for NR, while the V max for NR is about four times that of NAD (4). This implies that NR is the substrate for an as-yet-unidentified inner membrane transporter, a proposal that is supported by the observation that NAD cannot be taken up into the cytosolic compartment as an intact molecule. Limited NAD salvage capacity resides within the H. influenzae cytosol, which can be demonstrated if cell extracts are incubated with NR or NMN, indicating the presence of an NMN adenylyl transferase or an NAD pyrophosphorylase activity (5, 16).

SummaryExogenous NAD utilization or pyridine nucleotide cycle metabolism is used by many bacteria to maintain NAD turnover and to limit energy-dependent de novo NAD synthesis. The genus Haemophilus includes several important pathogenic bacterial species that require NAD as an essential growth factor. The molecular mechanisms of NAD uptake and processing are understood only in part for Haemophilus. In this report, we present data showing that the outer membrane lipoprotein e(P4), encoded by the hel gene, and an exported 5 H -nucleotidase (HI0206), assigned as nadN, are necessary for NAD and NADP utilization. Lipoprotein e(P4) is characterized as an acid phosphatase that uses NADP as substrate. Its phosphatase activity is inhibited by compounds such as adenosine or NMN. The nadN gene product was characterized as an NAD-nucleotidase, responsible for the hydrolysis of NAD. H. influenzae hel and nadN mutants had defined growth deficiencies. For growth, the uptake and processing of the essential cofactors NADP and NAD required e(P4) and 5 H -nucleotidase. In addition, adenosine was identified as a potent growth inhibitor of wild-type H. influenzae strains, when NADP was used as the sole source of nicotinamide-ribosyl.

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Proteus mirabilis strain 1095167'has been cultivated in surface culture on different minimal media, which were composed either of single amino acids or combinations of several amino acids without or with stepwise addition of other C-sources u p to the complete medium. We found a direct dependence of the formation of the various antigens (moving t o the cathode, to the anode, or not moving) on the composition of the medium.Certain amino acids (Ala, Glu, Asp, Ser) elicit only parts of the antigenic spectrum formed in complete medium, but enrich special antigens. With only 2 amino acids (Ala and Glu) and the vitamins thiamine, pyridoxal, and niacine in the anorganic basic medium the complete antigenic spectrum can be formed. We have shown that the composition of the cell wall varies with the composition of the culture medium.

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The anodically‐moving thermolabile antigen (ATA) of gram‐negative bacteria represents a glycolipoprotein. In aqueous solution ATA exhibits heterogeneity of the molecular size, the range varying between 2 · 104 and 8 · 105 Daltons. In the molecular range between 5 · 104 and 8 · 105 all the molecular states give precipitation lines with the corresponding antisera. It could be shown that all the molecular states of ATA are formed by different aggregation of the same subunit with a molecular weight of approximativly 22 000.

Zur Herstellung von Seren gegen ein thermolabiles Antigen von Shigella sonnei muß die Immunisierung auf 10 Injektionen verlängert werden, da nach 6 Injektionen die entsprechende Linie in der Immunelektrophorese im allgemeinen noch nicht gefunden werden kann. Zwischen der Höhe des Agglutinintiters und der Ausbildung von Antikörpern gegen das thermolabile Antigen fanden wir keine Zusammenhänge.