Journal of Bacteriology, April 2001, p. 2394-2397, Vol. 183, No. 7
Department of Biology1
and Department of Chemistry,2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
02139
Received 20 October 2000/Accepted 17 January 2001
Phasins are proteins that are proposed to play important roles in
polyhydroxyalkanoate synthesis and granule formation. Here the phasin
PhaP of Ralstonia eutropha has been analyzed with regard to
its role in the synthesis of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). Purified recombinant PhaP, antibodies against PhaP, and an R. eutropha phaP deletion strain have been generated for this analysis.
Studies with the phaP deletion strain show that PhaP must
accumulate to high levels in order to play its normal role in PHB
synthesis and that the accumulation of PhaP to low levels is
functionally equivalent to the absence of PhaP. PhaP positively affects
PHB synthesis under growth conditions which promote production of PHB
to low, intermediate, or high levels. The levels of PhaP generally parallel levels of PHB in cells. The results are consistent with models
whereby PhaP promotes PHB synthesis by regulating the surface/volume ratio of PHB granules or by interacting with polyhydroxyalkanoate synthase and indicate that PhaP plays an important role in PHB synthesis from the early stages in PHB production and across a range of
growth conditions.
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.7.2394-2397.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
New Insight into the Role of the PhaP Phasin of Ralstonia
eutropha in Promoting Synthesis of
Polyhydroxybutyrate
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Bldg. 68-370, Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139. Phone: (617) 253-6721. Fax:
(617) 253-8550. E-mail: asinskey{at}mit.edu.
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