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Journal of Bacteriology, November 1999, p. 7087-7097, Vol. 181, No. 22
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

A Mutation in the 3-Phosphoglycerate Kinase Gene Allows Anaerobic Growth of Bacillus subtilis in the Absence of ResE Kinase

Michiko M. Nakano,^1,2,* Yi Zhu,^1,2 Koki Haga,^3, Hirofumi Yoshikawa,^3, Abraham L. Sonenshein,⁴ and Peter Zuber^1,2

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Medical Center, Shreveport, Louisiana 71130¹; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, Beaverton, Oregon 97006²; Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan³; and Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111⁴

Received 30 March 1999/Accepted 7 September 1999

The Bacillus subtilis ResD-ResE two-component signal transduction system is essential for aerobic and anaerobic respiration. A spontaneous suppressor mutant that expresses ResD-controlled genes and grows anaerobically in the absence of the ResE histidine kinase was isolated. In addition, aerobic expression of ResD-controlled genes in the suppressed strain was constitutive and occurred at a much higher level than that observed in the wild-type strain. The suppressing mutation, which mapped to pgk, the gene encoding 3-phosphoglycerate kinase, failed to suppress a resD mutation, suggesting that the suppressing mutation creates a pathway for phosphorylation of the response regulator, ResD, which is independent of the cognate sensor kinase, ResE. The pgk-1 mutant exhibited very low but measurable 3-phosphoglycerate kinase activity compared to the wild-type strain. The results suggest that accumulation of a glycolytic intermediate, probably 1,3-diphosphoglycerate, is responsible for the observed effect of the pgk-1 mutation on anaerobiosis of resE mutant cells.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, 20,000 N.W. Walker Rd., Beaverton, OR 97006. Phone: (503) 748-4078. Fax: (503) 748-1464. E-mail: mnakano{at}bmb.ogi.edu.

Present address: Department of Bioscience, Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1-1-1 Sakuragaoka, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan.

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Journal of Bacteriology, November 1999, p. 7087-7097, Vol. 181, No. 22
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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