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Journal of Bacteriology, March 1999, p. 1713-1718, Vol. 181, No. 6
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Aspartate Kinase-Independent Lysine Synthesis in an Extremely Thermophilic Bacterium, Thermus thermophilus: Lysine Is Synthesized via alpha -Aminoadipic Acid Not via Diaminopimelic Acid

Nobuyuki Kobashi, Makoto Nishiyama,* and Masaru Tanokura*

Biotechnology Research Center, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan

Received 28 September 1998/Accepted 23 December 1998

An aspartate kinase-deficient mutant of Thermus thermophilus, AK001, was constructed. The mutant strain did not grow in a minimal medium, suggesting that T. thermophilus contains a single aspartate kinase. Growth of the mutant strain was restored by addition of both threonine and methionine, while addition of lysine had no detectable effect on growth. To further elucidate the lysine biosynthetic pathway in T. thermophilus, lysine auxotrophic mutants of T. thermophilus were obtained by chemical mutagenesis. For all lysine auxotrophic mutants, growth in a minimal medium was not restored by addition of diaminopimelic acid, whereas growth of two mutants was restored by addition of alpha -aminoadipic acid, a precursor of lysine in biosynthetic pathways of yeast and fungi. A BamHI fragment of 4.34 kb which complemented the lysine auxotrophy of a mutant was cloned. Determination of the nucleotide sequence suggested the presence of homoaconitate hydratase genes, termed hacA and hacB, which could encode large and small subunits of homoaconitate hydratase, in the cloned fragment. Disruption of the chromosomal copy of hacA yielded mutants showing lysine auxotrophy which was restored by addition of alpha -aminoadipic acid or alpha -ketoadipic acid. All of these results indicated that in T. thermophilus, lysine was not synthesized via the diaminopimelic acid pathway, believed to be common to all bacteria, but via a pathway using alpha -aminoadipic acid as a biosynthetic intermediate.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address for Makoto Nishiyama: Biotechnology Research Center, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan. Phone: 81-3(3812)2111, ext. 3075. Fax: 81-3(5802)3326. E-mail: umanis{at}hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

Journal of Bacteriology, March 1999, p. 1713-1718, Vol. 181, No. 6
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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