SummaryA cluster of eight genes, vbsGSO, vbsADL, vbsC and vbsP, are involved in the synthesis of vicibactin, a cyclic, trihydroxamate siderophore made by the symbiotic bacterium Rhizobium leguminosarum. None of these vbs genes was required for symbiotic N 2 fixation on peas or Vicia. Transcription of vbsC, vbsGSO and vbsADL (but not vbsP) was enhanced by growth in low levels of Fe. Transcription of vbsGSO and vbsADL, but not vbsP or vbsC, required the closely linked gene rpoI, which encodes an ECF s factor of RNA polymerase. Transfer of the cloned vbs genes, plus rpoI, to Rhodobacter, Paracoccus and Sinorhizobium conferred the ability to make vicibactin on these other genera. We present a biochemical genetic model of vicibactin synthesis, which accommodates the phenotypes of different vbs mutants and the homologies of the vbs gene products. In this model, VbsS, which is similar to many non-ribosomal peptide synthetase multienzymes, has a central role. It is proposed that VbsS activates L-N 5 -hydroxyornithine via covalent attachment as an acyl thioester to a peptidyl carrier protein domain. Subsequent VbsA-catalysed acylation of the hydroxyornithine, followed by VbsLmediated epimerization and acetylation catalysed by VbsC, yields the vicibactin subunit, which is then trimerized and cyclized by the thioesterase domain of VbsS to give the completed siderophore.
Nineteen strains of root nodule bacteria were grown under various iron regimes (0.1, 1.0 and 20 microM added iron) and tested for catechol and hydroxamate siderophore production and the excretion of malate and citrate. The growth response of the strains to iron differed markedly. For 12 strains (Bradyrhizobium strains NC92B and 32H1, B. japonicum USDA110 and CB1809, B. lupini WU8, cowpea Rhizobium NGR234, Rhizobium meliloti strains U45 and CC169, Rhizobium leguminosarum bv viciae WU235 and Rhizobium leguminosarum bv trifolii strains TA1, T1 and WU95) the mean generation time showed no variation with the 200-fold increase in iron concentration. In contrast, in Bradyrhizobium strains NC921, CB756 and TAL1000, B. japonicum strain 61A76 and R. leguminosarum bv viciae MNF300 there was a 2-5 fold decrease in growth rate at low iron. R. meliloti strains WSM419 and WSM540 showed decreased growth at high iron. All strains of root nodule bacteria tested gave a positive CAS (chrome azurol S) assay for siderophore production. No catechol-type siderophores were found in any strain, and only R. leguminosarum bv trifolii T1 and bv viciae WU235 produced hydroxamate under low iron (0.1 and 1.0 microM added iron). Malate was excreted by all strains grown under all iron regimes. Citrate was excreted by B. japonicum USDA110 and B. lupini WU8 in all iron concentrations, while Bradyrhizobium TAL1000, R. leguminosarum bv viciae MNF300 and B. japonicum 61A76 only produced citrate under low iron (0.1 and/or 1.0 microM added iron) during the stationary phase of growth.
A mutant of Rhizobium leguminosarum was isolated which fails to take up the siderophore vicibactin. The mutation is in a homologue of fhuB, which in Escherichia coli specifies an inner-membrane protein of the ferric hydroxamate uptake system. In Rhizobium, fhuB is in an operon fhuDCB, which specifies the cytoplasmic membrane and periplasmic proteins involved in siderophore uptake. fhuDCB mutants make vicibactin when grown in Fe concentrations that inhibit its production in the wild-type. Nodules on peas induced by fhuDCB mutants were apparently normal in N, fixation. Transcription of an fhuDCB-lacZ fusion was Fe-regulated, being approximately 10-fold higher in Fe-depleted cells. Downstream of fhuB, in the opposite orientation, is a version of fhuA whose homologues in other bacteria specify hydroxamate outer-membrane receptors. This fhuA gene appears to be a pseudogene with stop codons and undetectable expression.
Trihydroxamate siderophores were isolated from iron-def icient cultures of three strains of Rhilobiurn legurninorarum biovar wiciae, two from Japan (WSM709, WSM710) and one from the Mediterranean (WU235), and from a Tn5-induced mutant of WSM710 (MNF7101). The first three all produced the same compound (vicibactin), which was uncharged and could be purified by solvent extraction into benzyl alcohol. The gallium and ferric complexes of vicibactin were extractable into benzyl alcohol at pH 59, while metal-free vicibactin could be extracted with good yield at pH 89. The trihydroxamate from MNF7101 (vicibactin 7101) could not be extracted into benzyl alcohol, but its cationic nature permitted purification by chromatography on Sephadex CM-25 (NHt form). Relative molecular masses and empirical formulae were obtained from fast-atom-bombardment MS. The structures were derived from one-and two-dimensional IH and I3C NMR spectroscopy, using DQF-COSY, NOESY, HMQC and HMBC techniques on the compounds dissolved in methanol-d, and DMSOd6. Vicibactin proves to be a cyclic molecule containing three residues each of (R)-2,5-diamino-N2-acetyl-N5-hydroxypentanoic acid (W-acetyl-M-hydroxy-Dornithine) and (R)-3-hydroxybutanoic acid, arranged alternately, with alternating ester and peptide bonds. Vicibactin 7101 differed only in lacking the acetyl substitution on the N2 of the W-hydroxyornithine, resulting in net positive charge; it was still functional as a siderophore and promoted 55Fe uptake by iron-starved cells of WSM710 in the presence of an excess of phosphate. The rate of vicibactin biosynthesis by iron-def icient cells of WSM710 was essentially constant between pH 5.5 and 79, but much decreased at pH 59. When iron-starved cultures were supplemented with potential precursors for vicibactin, the rates of i t s synthesis were consistent with both fi hydroxybutyrate and ornithine being precursors. At least three genes seem likely to be involved in synthesis of vicibactin from ornithine and fi hydroxybutyrate : a hydroxylase adding the -OH group to the N5 of ornithine, an acetylase adding the acetyl group to the N2 of ornithine, and a peptide synthetase system.
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