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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2000, p. 3572-3581, Vol. 182, No. 12
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Characterization of devH, a Gene Encoding a Putative
DNA Binding Protein Required for Heterocyst Function in
Anabaena sp. Strain PCC 7120
Pratibha B.
Hebbar
and
Stephanie E.
Curtis*
Department of Genetics, North Carolina State
University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7614
Received 23 November 1999/Accepted 21 March 2000
The devH gene was identified in a screen for
Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 sequences whose transcripts
increase in abundance during a heterocyst development time course. The
product of devH contains a helix-turn-helix motif similar
to the DNA binding domain of members of the cyclic AMP receptor protein
family, and the protein is most closely related to the cyanobacterial
transcriptional activator NtcA. devH transcripts are barely
detectable in vegetative cells and are induced approximately fivefold
after nitrogen starvation. This induction is absent in the two
developmental mutants hetR and ntcA. The gene
is expressed as monocistronic transcripts with multiple 5' termini, and
the ~500-bp region 5' to devH was shown to have promoter
activity in vivo. The devH gene was insertionally inactivated by the integration of plasmid sequences within the open
reading frame. Nitrogen starvation of the devH mutant
induces heterocysts of wild-type morphology, but the mutant is inviable in the absence of fixed nitrogen and unable to reduce acetylene aerobically.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Genetics, Box 7614, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
27695-7614. Phone: (919) 515-2291. Fax: (919) 515-3355. E-mail:
securtis{at}ncsu.edu.

Present address: Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental
Toxicology, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,
Research Triangle Park, NC
27709.
Journal of Bacteriology, June 2000, p. 3572-3581, Vol. 182, No. 12
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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