Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.2.1.23 (beta-galactosidase)
 14,648 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A new gene whose product is required for the production of formate hydrogenlyase (FHL) has been identified in Escherichia coli. This gene, termed fhlB, maps between the frdA (94.4 min) and argI (96.6 min) genes on the E. coli chromosome and is transcribed in a clockwise direction toward argI. Biochemical analysis of an FhlB- mutant, strain SE-2011 [phi(fhlB-lacZ+)], revealed that the mutant lacks formate dehydrogenase activity associated with FHL (FDH-H) and hydrogenase activity. As a result of these defects, fermentative hydrogen production and hydrogen uptake reactions were undetectable in strain SE-2011. Fumarate reductase activity of this mutant was also reduced to about 15% of the levels of the parent (strain MC4100), and strain SE-2011 did not produce succinate as a fermentation end product. Regulation of expression of the fhlB gene, studied as production of beta-galactosidase activity by strain SE-2011, revealed that the operon is expressed at low levels under aerobic conditions. Under anaerobic growth conditions, this activity increased by two- to threefold. Addition of formate enhanced the differential rate of synthesis of the fhlB gene product to as high as 130 U of beta-galactosidase specific activity per microgram of cell protein, but only under anaerobic conditions. Formate-dependent expression of phi(fhlB-lacZ+) required the sigma 54 subunit of RNA polymerase and the fhlA gene product. The concentration of formate required for maximum expression of the fhlB gene was about 15 mM; this value decreased to about 3 mM in the presence of plasmid pSE-133, which carries the fhlA gene in a multicopy plasmid. DNA sequence analysis of the fhlA gene showed that the FhlA protein is 686 amino acids long and has an anhydrous molecular weight of 78,086. On the basis of sequence homology with other transcriptional activators such as NtrC, HydG, and Klebsiella pneumoniae NifA proteins, the FhlA protein was deduced to be a transcriptional activator controlling the production of FHL. It is proposed that formate interacts with the FhlA protein and that this active complex initiates transcription of the fhlB gene. The FhlA and FhlB proteins act as a cascade in regulating the production of FDH-H and the FHL-linked hydrogenase and ultimately the production of FHL and fermentative hydrogen.
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PMID:Genetic regulation of formate hydrogenlyase of Escherichia coli: role of the fhlA gene product as a transcriptional activator for a new regulatory gene, fhlB. 211 3

The Mu dl (ApR lac) bacteriophage was used to generate mutants of Escherichia coli which were defective in formate hydrogenlyase. Three mutants were chosen for further analysis: they lacked hydrogenase (hydrogen: benzyl viologen oxidoreductase) activity, but produced normal levels of fumarate reductase activity and two- to three-fold reduced levels of benzyl viologen (BV)-dependent formate dehydrogenase activity. Two of them (hydC) were shown to contain about 4-fold reduced amounts of formate hydrogenlyase and fumarate-dependent H2 uptake activities. The third one (hydD) was totally devoid of both activities. Their insertion sites were located at 77 min on the E. coli map. Subdivision of these mutants into two classes was subsequently based on the restoration capacity of hydrogenase activity with high concentration of nickel in the growth media. Addition of 500 microM NiCl2 led to a complete recovery of hydrogenase activity, and to the concomitant restoration of normal BV-linked formate dehydrogenase, formate hydrogenlyase and fumarate-dependent H2 uptake activities in the hydC mutants. The hydD mutant was insensitive to the effect of nickel. Expression of the lac operon in hydC and hydD mutants was induced by anaerobiosis. It was not increased by the addition of formate under anaerobic conditions. The presence of nitrate resulted in slightly reduced beta-galactosidase activities in the hydC mutants, whereas those found in the hydD mutant reached only one third of the level obtained in its absence. Fumarate had no effect on both classes. Moreover, in contrast to the hydD locus, the hydC::Mu dl fusions were found to be dependent upon the positive control exerted by the nirR gene product and were totally repressed by an excess of nickel. In addition, the low levels of overall hydrogenase-dependent activities found in a nirR strain were also relieved by the presence of nickel. Our results strongly suggest that the pleiotropic regulatory gene nirR is essential for the expression of a gene (hydC) involved in either transport or processing of nickel in the cell, whose alteration leads to a loss of hydrogenase activity.
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PMID:Genetic and physiological characterization of new Escherichia coli mutants impaired in hydrogenase activity. 308 8

Fumarate reductase catalyzes the terminal step of anaerobic electron transport with fumarate as a terminal electron acceptor. Transcription of the fumarate reductase (frdABCD) operon in Escherichia coli is repressed in the presence of the preferred terminal electron acceptors, oxygen and nitrate. To identify trans-acting genes involved in regulation by nitrate, a number of E. coli mutants were generated in which expression of a frdA'-'lacZ protein fusion was no longer fully repressed by nitrate. One of these mutants, strain LK23R35, exhibited 17-fold higher beta-galactosidase activity than the wild-type strain when grown anaerobically in the presence of nitrate. When grown aerobically in the presence of nitrate, it contained three- to fourfold more beta-galactosidase activity than the wild-type strain did. Oxygen regulation of frd expression, however, was unaffected by the mutation, since the level of beta-galactosidase activity in both strains was nearly identical when they were grown in the absence of nitrate either aerobically or anaerobically. To confirm that the mutation acts in trans to frdABCD, we measured fumarate reductase levels and found them to parallel FrdA'-beta-galactosidase activity under all growth conditions tested. The effect of the mutation is pleiotropic, since the levels of nitrate reductase in LK23R35 were not induced by the addition of nitrate. The frdR mutant was also derepressed for nitrate control of the trimethylamine-N-oxide reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes. The mutation maps in a region between trp and hemA at 27 min on the E. coli chromosome. This gene, where we call frdR, is involved in both positive and negative regulation of electron transport and fermentation associated genes. A cloned 4.9-kilobase fragment of chromosomal DNA was found to complement the frdR mutation; both repression of fumarate reductase gene expression and activation of nitrate reductase gene expression were restored.
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PMID:The frdR gene of Escherichia coli globally regulates several operons involved in anaerobic growth in response to nitrate. 327 62

Mutants of Escherichia coli were isolated in which transcription of the structural genes for hydrogenase (hyd) and for one of the components of formate dehydrogenase (fdh) (of the formate hydrogen-lyase complex) is coupled with that of the lacZ gene. They were--together with lac fusions of the nifH and nifL genes from Klebsiella--used to study regulation by redox control, of the expression of the respective structural genes. The following results were obtained: (i) beta-galactosidase synthesis was fully repressed in the presence of O2 or nitrate (anaerobically), and induced in the absence of an external electron acceptor. Fumarate as terminal electron acceptor only marginally affected nif expression and partially repressed hyd and fdh expression. Redox control of the synthesis of hydrogenase and formate dehydrogenase, therefore, (as well as that of nif) acts at the level of transcription; the size of the redox potential seems to be correlated with the amount of repression; (ii) beta-galactosidase synthesis in the hyd:: lac and fdh::lac fusion strains is induced by formate. At high concentrations formate reverses the repression by nitrate and fumarate but not that by oxygen.
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PMID:On the redox control of synthesis of anaerobically induced enzymes in enterobacteriaceae. 636 66