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Journal of Bacteriology, April 2009, p. 2423-2430, Vol. 191, No. 8
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01464-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A Widely Conserved Gene Cluster Required for Lactate Utilization in Bacillus subtilis and Its Involvement in Biofilm Formation{triangledown}

Yunrong Chai,1 Roberto Kolter,2 and Richard Losick1*

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138,1 Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 021152

Received 17 October 2008/ Accepted 27 January 2009

We report that catabolism of L-lactate in Bacillus subtilis depends on the previously uncharacterized yvfV-yvfW-yvbY (herein renamed lutABC) operon, which is inferred to encode three iron-sulfur-containing proteins. The operon is under the dual control of a GntR-type repressor (LutR, formerly YvfI) and the master regulator for biofilm formation SinR and is induced during growth in response to L-lactate. Operons with high similarity to lutABC are present in the genomes of a variety of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, raising the possibility that LutABC is a widely conserved and previously unrecognized pathway for the utilization of L-lactate or related metabolites.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. Phone: (617) 495-4905. Fax: (617) 496-4642. E-mail: Losick{at}mcb.harvard.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 6 February 2009.

Journal of Bacteriology, April 2009, p. 2423-2430, Vol. 191, No. 8
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01464-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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