J. Bacteriol., 01 1998, 190-193, Vol 180, No. 1
C Ueguchi, T Ohta, C Seto, T Suzuki and T Mizuno
The Escherichia coli bgl operon is of interest, since its expression is
silent (phenotypically Bgl-), at least under standard laboratory
conditions. Here we attempted to identify a trans-acting factor(s) that is
presumably relevant to the regulation of bgl by a random insertion
mutagenesis with mini-Tn10. These collected mutations, conferring the
phenotype of Bgl+, were localized in three loci on the genetic map, two of
which appeared to be hns and bglJ, which were previously implicated as the
factors affecting the Bgl phenotype. The other locus at 1 to 2 min on the
genetic map appeared to be a new one. In this case, the insertion mutation
was found to be just in front of the leuO gene encoding a putative
LysR-like DNA-binding protein. Genetic analyses revealed that
overproduction of LeuO in the wild-type cells causes the phenotype of Bgl+.
A leuO deletion mutant was also characterized in terms of expression of
bgl. From these results, the possible function of LeuO in bgl expression
will be discussed from an evolutionary and/or ecological point of view.
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology
The leuO gene product has a latent ability to relieve bgl silencing in Escherichia coli [In Process Citation]
Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, School of Agriculture, Nagoya University, Japan. cueguchi@nuagr1.agr.nagoya-u.ac.jp
This article has been cited by other articles:
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»