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J Bacteriol, February 1998, p. 563-570, Vol. 180, No. 3
0021-9193/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Alanine Catabolism in Klebsiella aerogenes: Molecular
Characterization of the dadAB Operon and Its Regulation by
the Nitrogen Assimilation Control Protein
Brian K.
Janes and
Robert A.
Bender*
Department of Biology, The University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1048
Received 20 June 1997/Accepted 20 November 1997
Klebsiella aerogenes strains with reduced levels of
D-amino acid dehydrogenase not only fail to use alanine as
a growth substrate but also become sensitive to alanine in minimal
media supplemented with glucose and ammonium. The inability of these
mutant strains to catabolize the alanine provided in the medium
interferes with both pathways of glutamate production. Alanine
derepresses the nitrogen regulatory system (Ntr), which in turn
represses glutamate dehydrogenase, one pathway of glutamate production.
Alanine also inhibits the enzyme glutamine synthetase, the first enzyme
in the other pathway of glutamate production. Therefore, in the
presence of alanine, strains with mutations in dadA (the
gene that codes for a subunit of the dehydrogenase) exhibit a glutamate
auxotrophy when ammonium is the sole source of nitrogen. The alanine
catabolic operon of Klebsiella aerogenes,
dadAB, was cloned, and its DNA sequence was determined. The
clone complemented the alanine defects of dadA strains. The
operon has a high similarity to the dadAB operon of
Salmonella typhimurium and the dadAX operon of
Escherichia coli, each of which codes for the smaller
subunit of D-amino acid dehydrogenase and the catabolic
alanine racemase. Unlike the cases for E. coli and S. typhimurium, the dad operon of K. aerogenes is activated by the Ntr system, mediated in this case
by the nitrogen assimilation control protein (NAC). A sequence matching
the DNA consensus for NAC-binding sites is located centered at position
44 with respect to the start of transcription. The promoter of this
operon also contains consensus binding sites for the catabolite activator protein and the leucine-responsive regulatory protein.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Biology, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048. Phone: (313) 936-2530. Fax: (313) 647-0884. E-mail:
rbender{at}umich.edu.
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