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Journal of Bacteriology, July 2008, p. 5009-5019, Vol. 190, No. 14
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00378-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

An OmpA Family Protein, a Target of the GinI/GinR Quorum-Sensing System in Gluconacetobacter intermedius, Controls Acetic Acid Fermentation ^,

Aya Iida, Yasuo Ohnishi, and Sueharu Horinouchi^*

Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan

Received 15 March 2008/ Accepted 2 May 2008

Via N-acylhomoserine lactones, the GinI/GinR quorum-sensing system in Gluconacetobacter intermedius NCI1051, a gram-negative acetic acid bacterium, represses acetic acid and gluconic acid fermentation. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis of protein profiles of strain NCI1051 and ginI and ginR mutants identified a protein that was produced in response to the GinI/GinR regulatory system. Cloning and nucleotide sequencing of the gene encoding this protein revealed that it encoded an OmpA family protein, named GmpA. gmpA was a member of the gene cluster containing three adjacent homologous genes, gmpA to gmpC, the organization of which appeared to be unique to vinegar producers, including "Gluconacetobacter polyoxogenes." In addition, GmpA was unique among the OmpA family proteins in that its N-terminal membrane domain forming eight antiparallel transmembrane β-strands contained an extra sequence in one of the surface-exposed loops. Transcriptional analysis showed that only gmpA of the three adjacent gmp genes was activated by the GinI/GinR quorum-sensing system. However, gmpA was not controlled directly by GinR but was controlled by an 89-amino-acid protein, GinA, a target of this quorum-sensing system. A gmpA mutant grew more rapidly in the presence of 2% (vol/vol) ethanol and accumulated acetic acid and gluconic acid in greater final yields than strain NCI1051. Thus, GmpA plays a role in repressing oxidative fermentation, including acetic acid fermentation, which is unique to acetic acid bacteria and allows ATP synthesis via ethanol oxidation. Consistent with the involvement of gmpA in oxidative fermentation, its transcription was also enhanced by ethanol and acetic acid.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan. Phone: 81 3 5841 5123. Fax: 81 3 5841 8021. E-mail: asuhori{at}mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Published ahead of print on 16 May 2008.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

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Journal of Bacteriology, July 2008, p. 5009-5019, Vol. 190, No. 14
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00378-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Iida, A., Ohnishi, Y., Horinouchi, S. (2009). Identification and characterization of target genes of the GinI/GinR quorum-sensing system in Gluconacetobacter intermedius. Microbiology 155: 3021-3032 [Abstract] [Full Text]