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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2004, p. 374-382, Vol. 186, No. 2
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.2.374-382.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Participation of fad and mbt Genes in Synthesis of Mycobactin in Mycobacterium smegmatis

B. Babbette D. LaMarca, Wenming Zhu,{dagger} Jean E. L. Arceneaux, B. Rowe Byers, and Michael D. Lundrigan*

Department of Microbiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216-4505

Received 29 September 2003/ Accepted 9 October 2003

Colonies of Mycobacterium smegmatis LR222 on iron-limiting (0.1 µM Fe) minimal medium agar fluoresce under UV light due to the accumulation in the cells of the deferri form of the siderophore mycobactin. Two mutants with little or no fluorescence, designated LUN8 and LUN9, were isolated by screening colonies of transposon (Tn611)-mutagenized M. smegmatis. Ferrimycobactin prepared from iron-restricted cells of the wild type had an Rf of 0.62 on high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) and a characteristic visible absorption spectrum with a peak near 450 nm. Similar extracts from LUN8 cells contained a small amount of ferrimycobactin with an Rf of 0.58 on HPTLC and an absorption spectrum with the peak shifted to a wavelength lower than that of the wild-type ferrimycobactin. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies suggested that the LUN8 mycobactin may have an altered fatty acid side chain. Mutant strain LUN9 produced no detectable mycobactin. Neither mutant strain produced measurable amounts of excreted mycobactin, although both excreted exochelin (the mycobacterial peptido-hydroxamate siderophore), and both mutants were more sensitive than the wild-type strain to growth inhibition by the iron chelator ethylenediamine-di(o-hydroxyphenylacetic acid). The transposon insertion sites were identified, and sequence analyses of the cloned flanking chromosome regions showed that the mutated gene in LUN9 was an orthologue of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis mycobactin biosynthetic gene mbtE. The mutated gene in LUN8 had homology with M. tuberculosis fadD33 (Rv1345), a gene that may encode an acyl-coenzyme A synthase and which previously was not known to participate in synthesis of mycobactin.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2500 North State St., Jackson, MS 39216. Phone: (601) 984-1711. Fax: (601) 984-1708. E-mail: mlundrigan{at}microbio.umsmed.edu.

{dagger} Present address: Anti-Infectives Investigation Section, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333.

Journal of Bacteriology, January 2004, p. 374-382, Vol. 186, No. 2
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.2.374-382.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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