The LuxR regulatory protein of Vibrio harveyi as well as the autoinducer molecule, N-(3-hydroxybutanoyl) homoserine lactone, are known to be required for expression of luminescence. Although LuxR has been implicated in the activation of the promoter of the lux operon of V. harveyi, and can bind to two distinct sites upstream of the transcription initiation start site, its mode of action is unknown. In the present experiments, mobility shift assays were used to demonstrate that LuxR bound to the distal and proximal sites in an independent rather than co-operative interaction with a much tighter binding to the distal site. Deletion mutation analyses of DNA upstream of the lux promoter followed by transconjugation into V. harveyi in trans using the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) gene as a reporter demonstrated, however, that the proximal site for LuxR was absolutely critical for promoter activation while the distal LuxR site was only necessary for maximum activation. This result was confirmed by mutation of the proximal site which blocked activation of the lux promoter and binding of LuxR to this site, but did not prevent LuxR binding to the distal site.
Knowledge of the pathway for synthesis of the autoinducer, N-(beta-hydroxybutyryl)-homoserine lactone (HBHL), controlling luminescence in Vibrio harveyi can provide important information concerning the relationship between the nutrition and physiology of the bacteria and the phenomenon of light emission. In this study, the D and L isomers of the autoinducer containing the stereoisomers of beta-hydroxybutyric acid were synthesized and characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance in the presence of a chiral shift reagent, a europium(III) derivative of Tris[3-(heptafluoropropyl-hydroxymethylene)-(+)-camphorato]. By using a newly isolated autoinducer mutant which responds to low physiological concentrations of the autoinducer, it could be shown that autoinducer activity was associated with D-HBHL and not L-HBHL. Blockage of fatty acid biosynthesis by the addition of fatty acids and/or the antibiotic cerulenin to the cells prevented synthesis of the autoinducer as measured by the loss of autoinducer activity and a decrease in the incorporation of labelled acetate into the partially purified autoinducer. These results indicate that fatty acid biosynthesis is necessary for light emission in luminescent bacteria because it controls formation of the lux autoinducer.
Regulatory mutants of the luminescent bacterium, Vibrio harweyi, have been isolated whose light emission can be stimulated by extracts of the growth media. Chloroform extracts of conditioned media in which V. harveyi has been grown can increase light emission in one of the dark mutants, D34, over 103-fold. An increase in the level of the mRNA and the enzymes associated with the lux system can also be demonstrated.Analysis of the expression of the lux system in Escherichia coli transformed with DNA from the D34 regulatory mutant demonstrates that the mutation resides outside the luciferase structural genes. The results suggest that the decrease in light emission in the regulatory mutants may be due t o a mutation in synthesis of an autoinducer analogous t o that found for the Vibrio fischeri lux system.
To assess the binding parameters and the structure-function relationship of the Vibrio harveyi lux autoinducer, N-(D-3-hydroxybutanoyl)homoserine lactone (D-HBHL), to light emission, a series of acylhomoserine lactone analogues were synthesized and their effects on the stimulation of luminescence of an autoinducer-deficient mutant of V. harveyi, D1, examined. Of the analogues with 3-hydroxyacyl chains, only N-(3-hydroxyvaleryl)homoserine lactone (HVHL) could act as an inducer, with about 85% of the potency of D-HBHL in stimulation of luminescence; the apparent Kd of the putative receptor for HVHL was 3.8 microM, close to that for the natural autoinducer (1.4 microM). Analogues with longer 3-hydroxyacyl chains, N-(3-hydroxyhexanoyl)homoserine lactone and N-(3-hydroxyheptanoyl)homoserine lactone, acted as competitive inhibitors of HBHL with apparent KI values of 77 and 53 microM respectively. Replacement of the 3-hydroxybutanoyl moiety with a 3-methylbutanoyl or 3-methoxybutanoyl group created weak competitive inhibitors, N-(isovaleryl)- and N-(3-methoxybutanoyl)- homoserine lactones, with apparent KI values of 150 and 360 microM respectively. Two other analogues, N-(2-hydroxybutanoyl)- and N-(4-hydroxybutanoyl)-homoserine lactone, could neither stimulate nor inhibit luminescence. The approach used in these studies to demonstrate binding of autoinducer analogues at the same site, as well as measurement of the relative dissociation constant, may be of value in analysing analogues activating or inhibiting luminescence and other processes that are under control of acylhomoserine lactone autoregulators.
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