Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Nucleotide sequence of the rpoN (hno) gene region of Alcaligenes eutrophus: evidence for a conserved gene cluster

  • Original Papers
  • Published:
Archives of Microbiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The nucleotide sequence of the rpoN gene, formerly designated hno, and flanking DNA regions of the aerobic hydrogen bacterium Alcaligenes eutrophus has been determined; rpoN codes for the RNA polymerase sigma factor σ54 involved in nitrogen regulation and diverse physiological functions of gram-negative bacteria. In A. eutrophus hydrogen metabolism is under control of rpoN. The Tn5-Mob insertion in a previously isolated pleiotropic mutant was mapped within the rpoN gene. The derived amino acid sequence of the A. eutrophus RpoN protein shows extensive homology to the RpoN proteins of other organisms. Sequencing revealed four other open reading frames: one upstream (ORF280) and three downstream (ORF130, ORF99 and ORF > 54) of the rpoN gene. A similar arrangement of homologous ORFs is found in the rpoN regions of other bacteria and is indicative of a conserved gene cluster.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albright LM, Ronson CW, Nixon BT, Ausubel FM (1989) Identification of a gene linked to Rhizobium meliloti ntrA whose product is homologous to a family of ATP-binding proteins. J Bacteriol 171: 1932–1941

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ausubel FM (1984) Regulation of nitrogen fixation genes. Cell 37: 5–6

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Beynon J, Cannon M, Buchanan-Wollaston V, Cannon F (1983) The nif promoters of Klebsiella pneumoniae have a characteristic primary structure. Cell 34: 665–671

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Berger DK, Woods DR, Rawlings DE (1990) Complementation of Escherichia coli σ54 (NtrA)-dependent formate hydrogenlyase activity by a cloned Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ntrA gene. J Bacteriol 172: 4399–4406

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Birkmann A, Saweres G, Böck A (1987) Involvement of the ntrA gene product in the anaerobic metabolism of Escherichia coli. Mol Gen Genet 210: 535–542

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Boyer HW, Roulland-Dussoix D (1969) A complementation analysis of the restriction and modification of DNA in Escherichia coli J Mol Biol 41: 459–472

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bruijn FJ de, Ausubel FM (1983) The cloning and characterization of the glnF (ntrA) gene of Klebsiella pneumoniae: role of glnF (ntrA) in the regulation of nitrogen fixation (nif) and other nitrogen assimilation genes. Mol Gen Genet 192: 342–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buck M, Cannon W, Woodcock J (1987) Transcriptional activation of the Klebsiella pneumoniae nitrogenase promoter may involve DNA loop formation. Mol Microbiol 1: 243–249

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Castano I, Bastarachea F (1984) glnF-lacZ fusions in Escherichia coli: studies on glnF expression and its chromosomal orientation. Mol Gen Genet 195: 228–233

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Courey AJ, Tjian R (1988) Analysis of Spl in vivo reveals multiple transcriptional domains, including a novel glutamine-rich activation motif. Cell 55: 887–898

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon RA (1984) The genetic complexity of nitrogen fixation. J Gen Microbiol 130: 2745–2755

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gough GA, Murray NE (1983) Sequence diversity among related genes for recognition of specific targets in DNA molecules. J Mol Biol 166: 1–19

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Helmann JD, Chamberlin M (1988) Structure and function of bacterial sigma factors. Annu Rev Biochem 57: 839–872

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Henikoff S (1984) Unidirectional digestion with exonuclease III creates targeted break points for DNA sequencing. Gene 28: 351–259

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hübner P, Willison JC, Vignais PM, Bickle TA (1991) Expression of regulatory nif genes in Rhodobacter capsulatus. J Bacteriol 173: 2993–2999

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inouye S, Yamada M, Nakazawa A, Nakazawa T (1989) Cloning and sequence analysis of the ntr A (rpoN) gene of Pseudomonas putida. Gene 85: 145–152

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jones R, Haselkorn R (1989) The DNA sequence of the Rhodobacter capsulatus ntrA, ntrB and ntrC gene analogues required for nitrogen fixation. Mol Gen Genet 215: 507–516

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kranz RG, Haselkorn R (1985) Characterization of the nif regulatory genes in Rhodopseudomonas capsulatus using lac gene fusions. Gene 40: 203–205

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kranz RG, Haselkorn R (1986) Anaerobic regulation of nitrogen fixation genes in Rhodopseudomonas capsulatus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83: 6805–6809

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kullik I, Fritsche S, Knobel H, Sanjuan J, Hennecke H, Fischer H-M (1991) Bradyrhizobium japonicum has two differentially regulated functional homologs of the σ54 gene (rpoN). J Bacteriol 173: 1125–1138

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kustu S, Santero E, Keener J, Popham D, Weiss D (1989) Expression of σ54 (ntrA)-dependent genes in probably united by a common mechanism. Microbiol Rev 53: 367–376

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Magasanik B (1982) Genetic control of nitrogen assimilation in bacteria. Annu Rev Genet 16: 135–168

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick MJ, Coppard JR (1989) Mutations in genes downstream of the rpoN gene (encoding σ54) of Klebsiella pneumoniae affect expression from σ54 promoters. Mol Microbiol 3: 1765–1775

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick MJ, Gibbins JR (1985) The nucleotide sequence of the nitrogen regulation gene ntrA of Klebsiella pneumoniae and comparison with conserved features in bacterial sigma factors. Nucleic Acids Res 13: 7607–7620

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick MJ, Stewart WDP (1985) Studies on the regulation and function of the Klebsiella pneumoniae ntrA gene. Gene 35: 297–303

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick MJ, Gibbins J, Toukdarian A (1987) The nucleotide sequence of the sigma factor gene ntrA (rpoN) of Azotobacter vinelandii: analysis of conserved sequences in NtrA proteins. Mol Gen Genet 210: 223–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pabo CO, Sauer RT (1984) Protein-DNA recognition. Annu Rev Biochem 53: 293–321

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pearson WL, Lipman DJ (1988) Improved tools for biological sequence comparison. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 85: 2444–2448

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Propham DL, Szeto D, Keener J, Kustu S (1989) Function of a bacterial activator protein that binds to transcriptional enhancers. Science 243: 629–635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reitzer LJ, Magasanik B (1986) Transcription of glnA in Escherichia coli is stimulated by activator bound to sites far from the promoter. Cell 45: 785–792

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Römermann D, Lohmeyer M, Friedrich CG, Friedrich B (1988) Pleiotropic mutants from Alcaligenes eutrophus defective in the metabolism of hydrogen, nitrate, urea, and fumarate. Arch Microbiol 149: 471–475

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Römermann D, Warrelmann J, Bender RA, Friedrich B (1989) An rpoN-like gene of alcaligenes eutrophus and Pseudomonas facilis controls expression of diverse metabolic pathways, including hydrogen oxidation. J Bacteriol 171: 1093–1099

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ronson CW, Nixon TT, Albright LM, Ausubel FM (1987) Rhizobium meliloti ntrA (rpoN) gene is required for diverse metabolic functions. J Bacteriol 169: 2424–2431

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Russel M, Model P (1984) Replacement of the fip gene of Escherichia coli by an inactive gene cloned on a plasmid. J Bacteriol 159: 1034–1039

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd JCW (1981) Method to determine the reading frame of a protein from the purine/pyrimidine genome sequence and its possible evolutionary justification. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 78: 1569–1600

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon R, Priefer U, Pühler A (1983) A broad host range mobilization system for in vivo genetic engineering: transposon mutagenesis in gram-negative bacteria. Bio/Technology 1: 784–791

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tabor S, Richardson CC (1985) A bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase/promoter system for controlled exclusive expression of specific genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 82: 1074–1078

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Walker JE, Saraste M, Runswick MJ, Gray NJ (1982) Distantly related sequences in the α- and β-subunits of ATP synthase, myosin, kinases and other ATP-requiring enzymes and a common nucleotide binding fold. EMBO J 8: 945–951

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut füt Pflanzenphysiologie und Mikrobiologie der Freien Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Strasse 12-16, W-1000, Berlin 33, Germany

    Jürgen Warrelmann, Marita Eitinger, Edward Schwartz, Detlef Römermann & Bärbel Friedrich

Authors
  1. Jürgen Warrelmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marita Eitinger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Edward Schwartz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Detlef Römermann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Bärbel Friedrich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Warrelmann, J., Eitinger, M., Schwartz, E. et al. Nucleotide sequence of the rpoN (hno) gene region of Alcaligenes eutrophus: evidence for a conserved gene cluster. Arch. Microbiol. 158, 107–114 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00245213

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00245213

Key words

Search

Navigation