Azotobacter vinelandii is a soil bacterium related to the Pseudomonas genus that fixes nitrogen under aerobic conditions while simultaneously protecting nitrogenase from oxygen damage. In response to carbon availability, this organism undergoes a simple differentiation process to form cysts that are resistant to drought and other physical and chemical agents. Here we report the complete genome sequence of A. vinelandii DJ, which has a single circular genome of 5,365,318 bp. In order to reconcile an obligate aerobic lifestyle with exquisitely oxygen-sensitive processes, A. vinelandii is specialized in terms of its complement of respiratory proteins. It is able to produce alginate, a polymer that further protects the organism from excess exogenous oxygen, and it has multiple duplications of alginate modification genes, which may alter alginate composition in response to oxygen availability. The genome analysis identified the chromosomal locations of the genes coding for the three known oxygen-sensitive nitrogenases, as well as genes coding for other oxygen-sensitive enzymes, such as carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and formate dehydrogenase. These findings offer new prospects for the wider application of A. vinelandii as a host for the production and characterization of oxygen-sensitive proteins.

ThiI is an enzyme common to the biosynthetic pathways leading to both thiamin and 4-thiouridine in tRNA.Comparison of the ThiI sequence with protein sequences in the data bases revealed that the Escherichia coli enzyme contains a C-terminal extension displaying sequence similarity to the sulfurtransferase rhodanese. Cys-456 of ThiI aligns with the active site cysteine residue of rhodanese that transiently forms a persulfide during catalysis. We investigated the functional importance of this sequence similarity and discovered that, like rhodanese, ThiI catalyzes the transfer of sulfur from thiosulfate to cyanide. Mutation of Cys-456 to alanine impairs this sulfurtransferase activity, and the C456A ThiI is incapable of supporting generation of 4-thiouridine in tRNA both in vitro and in vivo. We therefore conclude that Cys-456 of ThiI is critical for activity and propose that Cys-456 transiently forms a persulfide during catalysis. To accommodate this hypothesis, we propose a general mechanism for sulfur transfer in which the terminal sulfur of the persulfide first acts as a nucleophile and is then transferred as an equivalent of S 2؊ rather than S 0 .

Rhodaneses catalyze the transfer of the sulfane sulfur from thiosulfate or thiosulfonates to thiophilic acceptors such as cyanide and dithiols. In this work, we define for the first time the gene, and hence the amino acid sequence, of a 12-kDa rhodanese from Escherichia coli. Well-characterized rhodaneses are comprised of two structurally similar ca. 15-kDa domains. Hence, it is thought that duplication of an ancestral rhodanese gene gave rise to the genes that encode the two-domain rhodaneses. The glpE gene, a member of the sn-glycerol 3-phosphate (glp) regulon of E. coli, encodes the 12-kDa rhodanese. As for other characterized rhodaneses, kinetic analysis revealed that catalysis by purified GlpE occurs by way of an enzyme-sulfur intermediate utilizing a double-displacement mechanism requiring an active-site cysteine. The K m s for SSO 3 2؊ and CN ؊ were 78 and 17 mM, respectively. The apparent molecular mass of GlpE under nondenaturing conditions was 22.5 kDa, indicating that GlpE functions as a dimer. GlpE exhibited a k cat of 230 s ؊1 . Thioredoxin 1 from E. coli, a small multifunctional dithiol protein, served as a sulfur acceptor substrate for GlpE with an apparent K m of 34 M when thiosulfate was near its K m , suggesting that thioredoxin 1 or related dithiol proteins could be physiological substrates for sulfurtransferases. The overall degree of amino acid sequence identity between GlpE and the active-site domain of mammalian rhodaneses is limited (ϳ17%). This work is significant because it begins to reveal the variation in amino acid sequences present in the sulfurtransferases. GlpE is the first among the 41 proteins in COG0607 (rhodanese-related sulfurtransferases) of the database Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/COG/) for which sulfurtransferase activity has been confirmed.Genes of known function belonging to the glp regulon of Escherichia coli encode proteins that are responsible for the metabolism of sn-glycerol 3-phosphate (glycerol-P) and its precursors, glycerol and glycerophosphodiesters (38). The genes comprising this regulon belong to five operons. Transcription of all but the glpEGR operon is negatively regulated by the glp repressor GlpR, a member of the DeoR family of transcriptional regulators (34,65,(69)(70)(71)(72). Operon glpACB, encoding the subunits of the anaerobic glycerol-P dehydrogenase, is located near min 51 of the E. coli genome (38). Divergently transcribed from glpACB is glpTQ. The genes glpT and glpQ encode glycerol-P permease and periplasmic glycerophosphodiesterase, respectively (38). The glpFKX operon, at min 89, encodes glycerol diffusion facilitator, glycerol kinase, and a fructose 1,6-bisphophatase (38; J. L. Donahue, J. L. Bownas, W. G. Niehaus, Jr., and T. J. Larson, unpublished data). The genes glpE and glpG, together with the gene encoding the transcriptional repressor, glpR, form a complex operon at min 77 that is divergently transcribed from glpD (71). The gene glpD encodes the aerobic glycerol-P dehydrogenase (38).Prior to...

In Escherichia coli, gene products of the glp regulon mediate utilization of glycerol and sn-glycerol 3-phosphate. The glpFKX operon encodes glycerol diffusion facilitator, glycerol kinase, and as shown here, a fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase that is distinct from the previously described fbp-encoded enzyme. The purified enzyme was dimeric, dependent on Mn 2؉ for activity, and exhibited an apparent K m of 35 M for fructose 1,6-bisphosphate. The enzyme was inhibited by ADP and phosphate and activated by phosphoenolpyruvate.Growth of Escherichia coli on glycerol or sn-glycerol 3-phosphate (glycerol-P) as the sole carbon source is mediated primarily by the glp regulon (15). The glpFKX operon, one of the five operons of the regulon, encodes glycerol facilitator (glpF), glycerol kinase (glpK), and a protein of unknown function (glpX) (31, 32). It was initially reported that GlpX displays limited sequence similarity to the Synechococcus leopoliensis fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase) (31). In our work, a more recent BLAST search revealed that GlpX manifests 39% identity to an FBPase of Synechococcus sp. strain PCC7492 (29). Until now, the only recognized E. coli FBPase was encoded by fbp (25). This FBPase (FBPase I) has only 10% identity to the amino acid sequence of glpX-encoded FBPase (FBPase II). E. coli FBPase I is dependent on Mg 2ϩ , is inhibited by low levels of AMP, is tetrameric (1), and is necessary for growth of E. coli on gluconeogenic substrates such as glycerol or succinate (10).It is not clear why E. coli would maintain two distinct FBPases. FBPases can modulate the concentration of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate [Fru(1,6)P 2 ] and fructose 6-phosphate. These two regulatory hexoses affect glycolysis enzymes 6-phosphofructokinases I and II, pyruvate kinase I, and phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxylase (2,4,13,20); glycogen synthesis enzyme ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (12); and carbonsource import pathway enzymes glycerol kinase and 1-phosphofructokinase (6, 15). Flux through the Embden-Meyerhof pathway in the direction of glycolysis or gluconeogenesis can be allosterically controlled at the enzyme level by other metabolites as well: PEP, ATP, ADP or AMP (9). The potential "futile cycle" of phosphofructokinases and FBPases is also alleviated by this regulation. Therefore, regulation of FBPases is important.In this communication, the FBPase activity of the glpX gene product is documented. The glpX-encoded enzyme, FBPase II, was purified and characterized, enabling comparison of the attributes of E. coli FBPases in vitro. Further, a chromosomal insertion mutation in glpX was constructed to test the physiological effects of the glpX mutation on carbohydrate metabolism.E. coli strains and cloning of glpX. E. coli strains used in this study are listed in Table 1. Strains were grown in Luria broth (LB) supplemented with antibiotics as needed or in minimal medium (7) containing 0.4% glycerol or 0.2% glucose.The glpX gene was PCR amplified from chromosomal DNA of strain MG1655 using the primer pair acgtgaaTTCCCCTG TGCT...

The membrane-associated cytidine 5'-diphospho-1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol (CDP-diglyceride):sn-glycerol-3-phosphate phosphatidyltransferase (EC 2.7.8.5) from Escherichia coli has been solubilized wiTriton X-100 and purified 6000-fold to 85% of homogeneity. The major purification was attained using several modifications of the the CDP-diglyceride Sepharose affinity chromatography system described by Larson et al. (Larson, T.J., Hirabayashi, T., and Dowhan, W. (1976), Biochemistry 15, 974). The native enzyme in Triton X-100 had an apparent molecular weight of over 200 000, as judged by Sepharose 6B gel filtration. The apparent size of the native enzyme appeared to be due to its association with Triton X-100, as judged by sucrose gradient centrifugation, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and the lack of affinity for ion-exchange resins. The minimum subunit molecular weight of the enzyme, determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, was 24 000. This low molecular weight is consistent with the stability of enzyme to heat, urea, or sodium dodecyl sulfate denaturation. The purified enzyme had an absolute requirement for magnesium ion (KM = 50 mM) and Triton X-100 (0.5-6%) for activity when either CDP-diglyceride or dCDP-diglyceride was used as substrate. Kinetic analysis of the enzymatic reaction indicated an ordered sequential Bi-Bi reaction with the liponucleotide forming a dead-end complex at high concentration, which inhibited both the forward and reverse reactions. The enzyme would not hydrolyze the pyrophosphate bond of its lipid substrate or the phosphate esters of its lipid product but would catalyze a cytidine 5'-monophosphate dependent exchange reaction between glycero-3-phosphate and phosphatidylglycerophosphate.

Cytidine 5'-diphospho-1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol (CDPdiglyceride):L-serine O-phosphatidyltransferase (EC 2.7.8.8, phosphatidylserine synthetase) is bound tightly to the ribosomes in crude extracts of Escherichia coli. After separation of the enzyme from the ribosomes by the method of Raetz and Kennedy (Raetz, C.R.H., and Kennedy, E.P. (1974), J. Biol. Chem. 249, 5038), we have purified the enzyme to 97% of homogenekty. The major portion of the overall 5500-fold purification was attained by substrate-specific elution from phosphocellulose using CDP-diglyceride in the presence of detergent. The purified enzyme migrated as a single band with an apparent minimum molecular weight of 54 000 when subjected to electrophoresis on polyacrylamide disc gels containing sodium dodecyl sulfate. The purified enzyme catalyzed exchange reactions between cytidine 5'- monophosphate (CMP) and CDP-diglyceride and between serine and phosphatidylserine. The enzyme also catalyzed the hydrolysis of CDP-diglyceride to form CMP and phosphatidic acid. dCDP-diglyceride was equivalent to CDP-diglyceride in all reactions catalyzed by the enzyme. In addition, the purified enzyme catalyzed the formation of phosphatidylglycerol or phosphatidylglycerophosphate at a very slow rate when serine was replaced as substrate by glycerol or sn-glycero-3-phosphate, respectively. These results suggest catalysis occurs via a ping-pong mechanism through the formation of a phosphatidyl-enzyme intermediate.

Escherichia coli has eight genes predicted to encode sulfurtransferases having the active site consensus sequence Cys-Xaa-Xaa-Gly. One of these genes, ybbB, is frequently found within bacterial operons that contain selD, the selenophosphate synthetase gene, suggesting a role in selenium metabolism. We show that ybbB is required in vivo for the specific substitution of selenium for sulfur in 2-thiouridine residues in E. coli tRNA. This modified tRNA nucleoside, 5-methylaminomethyl-2-selenouridine (mnm 5 se 2 U), is located at the wobble position of the anticodons of tRNA Lys , tRNA Glu , and tRNA 1Gln . Nucleoside analysis of tRNAs from wild-type and ybbB mutant strains revealed that production of mnm 5 se 2 U is lost in the ybbB mutant but that 5-methylaminomethyl-2-thiouridine, the mnm 5 se 2 U precursor, is unaffected by deletion of ybbB. Thus, ybbB is not required for the initial sulfurtransferase reaction but rather encodes a 2-selenouridine synthase that replaces a sulfur atom in 2-thiouridine in tRNA with selenium. Purified 2-selenouridine synthase containing a C-terminal His 6 tag exhibited spectral properties consistent with tRNA bound to the enzyme. In vitro mnm 5 se 2 U synthesis is shown to be dependent on 2-selenouridine synthase, SePO 3 , and tRNA. Finally, we demonstrate that the conserved Cys 97 (but not Cys 96 ) in the rhodanese sequence motif Cys 96 -Cys 97 -Xaa-Xaa-Gly is required for 2-selenouridine synthase in vivo activity. These data are consistent with the ybbB gene encoding a tRNA 2-selenouridine synthase and identifies a new role for the rhodanese homology domain in enzymes.

The nucleotide sequence of the glpEGR operon of Escherichia coli was determined. The translational reading frame at the beginning, middle, and end of each gene was verified. The glpE gene encodes an acidic, cytoplasmic protein of 108 amino acids with a molecular weight of 12,082. The glpG gene encodes a basic, cytoplasmic membrane-associated protein of 276 amino acids with a molecular weight of 31,278. The functions of GlpE and GlpG are unknown. The glpR gene encodes the repressor for the glycerol 3-phosphate regulon, a protein predicted to contain 252 amino acids with a calculated molecular weight of 28,048. The amino acid sequence of the glp repressor was similar to several repressors of carbohydrate catabolic systems, including those of the glucitol (GutR), fucose (FucR), and deoxyribonucleoside (DeoR) systems of E. coli, as well as those of the lactose (LacR) and inositol (IolR) systems of gram-positive bacteria and agrocinopine (AccR) system of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. These repressors constitute a family of related proteins, all of which contain approximately 250 amino acids, possess a helix-turn-helix DNA-binding motif near the amino terminus, and bind a sugar phosphate molecule as the inducing signal. The DNA recognition helix of the glp repressor and the nucleotide sequence of the glp operator were very similar to those of the deo system. The presumptive recognition helix of the glp repressor was changed by site-directed mutagenesis to match that of the deo repressor or, in a separate construct, to abolish DNA binding. Neither altered form of the glp repressor recognized the glp or deo operator, either in vivo or in vitro. However, both altered forms of the glp repressor were negatively dominant to the wild-type glp repressor, indicating that the inability to bind DNA with high affinity was due to alteration of the DNA-binding domain, not to an inability to oligomerize or instability of the altered repressors. For the first time, analysis of repressors with altered DNA-binding domains has verified the assignment of the helix-turn-helix motif of the transcriptional regulators in the deoR family.The genes of the glp regulon of Escherichia coli encode the proteins needed for the dissimilation of sn-glycerol 3-phosphate (glycerol-P) and its precursors, glycerol and glycerophosphodiesters (27, 28). The five operons that constitute the glp regulon are located at three different positions on the chromosome. Transcription of the glp operons is subject to multiple controls, including catabolite repression mediated by cyclic AMP-CRP and respiratory control mediated by the FNR and ArcA/ArcB systems (19,28). In addition, each of the operons is negatively controlled by a repressor specific for the regulon, the glp repressor. The extent of repression is different for each operon. Repression is relieved in the presence of the inducer for the regulon, glycerol-P (28).The glpTQ and glpACB operons, located near 51 min of the linkagemap,encodetheglycerol-Ppermease/glycerophosphodiesterase and the subunits of the anaerob...