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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2001, p. 628-636, Vol. 183, No. 2
Departamento de Biología, Facultad de
Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
Received 26 July 2000/Accepted 26 October 2000
Transposon mutagenesis of Anabaena sp. strain PCC7120
led to the isolation of a mutant strain, SNa1, which is unable to fix nitrogen aerobically but is perfectly able to grow with combined nitrogen (i.e., nitrate). Reconstruction of the transposon mutation of
SNa1 in the wild-type strain reproduced the phenotype of the original
mutant. The transposon had inserted within an open reading frame whose
translation product shows significant homology with a family of
proteins known as high-molecular-weight penicillin-binding proteins
(PBPs), which are involved in the synthesis of the peptidoglycan layer
of the cell wall. A sequence similarity search allowed us to identify
at least 12 putative PBPs in the recently sequenced Anabaena sp. strain PCC7120 genome, which we have named and
organized according to predicted molecular size and the
Escherichia coli nomenclature for PBPs; based on this
nomenclature, we have denoted the gene interrupted in SNal as
pbpB and its product as PBP2. The wild-type form of
pbpB on a shuttle vector successfully complemented the
mutation in SNa1. In vivo expression studies indicated that PBP2 is
probably present when both sources of nitrogen, nitrate and
N2, are used. When nitrate is used, the function of PBP2
either is dispensable or may be substituted by other PBPs; however,
under nitrogen deprivation, where the differentiation of the heterocyst takes place, the role of PBP2 in the formation and/or maintenance of
the peptidoglycan layer is essential.
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.2.628-636.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
pbpB, a Gene Coding for a Putative Penicillin-Binding
Protein, Is Required for Aerobic Nitrogen Fixation in the
Cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. Strain PCC7120
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Departamento de
Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de
Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain. Phone: 34-91-3978176. Fax: 34-91-3978344. E-mail: francisco.leganes{at}uam.es.
Journal of Bacteriology, January 2001, p. 628-636, Vol. 183, No. 2
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.2.628-636.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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