Journal of Bacteriology, December 2000, p. 6550-6556, Vol. 182, No. 23
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Departamento de Microbiología Molecular, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos 62251, Mexico
Received 9 May 2000/Accepted 12 September 2000
Azotobacter vinelandii produces the exopolysaccharide
alginate, which is essential for its differentiation to
desiccation-resistant cysts. In different bacterial species, the
alternative sigma factor
E regulates the expression of
functions related to the extracytoplasmic compartments. In A. vinelandii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the
E factor (AlgU) is essential for alginate production. In
both bacteria, the activity of this sigma factor is regulated by the
product of the mucA, mucB, mucC,
and mucD genes. In this work, we studied the
transcriptional regulation of the A. vinelandii
algU-mucABCD gene cluster, as well as the role of the
mucA and mucC gene products in alginate
production. Our results show the existence of AlgU autoregulation and
show that both MucA and MucC play a negative role in alginate production.
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