Molecular analysis of two genes of the Escherichia coli gab cluster: nucleotide sequence of the glutamate:succinic semialdehyde transaminase gene (gabT) and characterization of the succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase gene (gabD).

We have characterized two genes of the Escherichia coli K-12 gab cluster, which encodes the enzymes of the 4-aminobutyrate degradation pathway. The nucleotide sequence of gabT, coding for glutamate:succinic semialdehyde transaminase (EC 2.6.1.19), alternatively known as 4-aminobutyrate transaminase, was determined. The structural gene consists of 1,281 nucleotides specifying a protein of 426 amino acids with a molecular mass of 45.76 kDa. The protein shows significant homologies to the ornithine transaminases from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and from rat and human mitochondria. Three functionally and structurally important amino acid residues of the transaminase were identified by sequence comparison studies, and evolutionary relationships of the aminotransferases are discussed. The gabD gene, encoding succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (EC 1.2.1.16), was cloned and shown to be located adjacent to the 5' end of gabT. Expression studies with subfragments of the initially cloned DNA region revealed a maximal size of 1.7 kb for gabD. Both genes are cotranscribed from a promoter located upstream of gabD.     

Specificity and regulation of gamma-aminobutyrate transport in Escherichia coli.

A specific gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA) transport system in Escherichia coli K-12 cells with a K(m) of 12 muM and a V(max) of 278 nmol/ml of intracellular water per min is described. Membrane vesicles contained d-lactate-dependent activity of the system. Mutants defective in GABA transport were isolated; they lost the ability to utilize GABA as a nitrogen source, although the activities of glutamate-succinylsemialdehyde transaminase (GSST) (EC 2.6.1.19) and succinylsemialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSDH) (EC 1.2.1.16), the enzymes that catalyze GABA utilization, remained as high as in the parental CS101B strain. The ability to utilize l-ornithine, l-arginine, putrescine, l-proline, and glycine as a nitrogen source was preserved in the mutants. The genetic lesions resulting in the loss of GABA transport, gabP5 and gabP9, mapped in the gab gene cluster in close linkage to gabT and gabD, the structural genes of GSST and SSDH, and to gabC, a gene controlling the utilization of GABA, arginine, putrescine, and ornithine. The synthesis of the GABA transport carrier is subject to dual physiological control by (i) catabolite repression and (ii) nitrogen availability. Experiments with glutamine synthetase (EC 6.3.1.2)-negative and with glutamine synthetase-constitutive strains strongly indicate that this enzyme is the effector in the regulation of GABA carrier synthesis by route (ii).     

Mutations in γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transaminase genes in plants or Pseudomonas syringae reduce bacterial virulence

Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 is a bacterial pathogen of Arabidopsis and tomato that grows in the apoplast. The non-protein amino acid γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) is produced by Arabidopsis and tomato and is the most abundant amino acid in the apoplastic fluid of tomato. The DC3000 genome harbors three genes annotated as gabT GABA transaminases. A DC3000 mutant lacking all three gabT genes was constructed and found to be unable to utilize GABA as a sole carbon and nitrogen source. In complete minimal media supplemented with GABA, the mutant grew less well than wild-type DC3000 and showed strongly reduced expression of hrpL and avrPto, which encode an alternative sigma factor and effector, respectively, associated with the type III secretion system. The growth of the gabT triple mutant was weakly reduced in Arabidopsis ecotype Landberg erecta (Ler) and strongly reduced in the Ler pop2-1 GABA transaminase-deficient mutant that accumulates higher levels of GABA. Much of the ability to grow on GABA-amended minimal media or in Arabidopsis pop2-1 leaves could be restored to the gabT triple mutant by expression in trans of just gabT2. The ability of DC3000 to elicit the hypersensitive response (HR) in tobacco leaves is dependent upon deployment of the type III secretion system, and the gabT triple mutant was less able than wild-type DC3000 to elicit this HR when bacteria were infiltrated along with GABA at levels of 1 mm or more. GABA may have multiple effects on P. syringae-plant interactions, with elevated levels increasing disease resistance.     

Genetic Analysis of the γ-Aminobutyrate Utilization Pathway in Escherichia coli K-12

The control mutation that results in a concomitant severalfold increase in the activities of gamma-aminobutyrate-alpha-ketoglutarate transaminase (GSST, EC 2.6.1.19) and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSDH, EC 1.2.1.16), leading to the acquisition of the ability to utilize gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA) as the sole source of nitrogen by Escherichia coli K-12 mutants, was mapped by mating and transduction with P1kc. The locus affected, gabC, is approximately 48% co-transduced with the thyA gene, located at min 55 of the E. coli K-12 chromosome. The structural gene of the first enzyme in the GABA pathway, GSST, was mapped by interrupted mating, using one of the GSST-less mutants, DB742, isolated in this work. The mutated locus, gabT, is situated at about min 73 of the E. coli chromosome, close to the gltC gene. Genetic evidence concerning the sensitivity of the enzymes of the GABA pathway to catabolite repression under different physiological conditions suggests that the two structural genes of the GABA regulon do not constitute one operon.     

Isolation and properties of Escherichia coli K-12 mutants impaired in the utilization of gamma-aminobutyrate.

We have isolated mutants of Escherichia coli K-12 CS101B that have lost the ability to utilize gamma-aminobutyrate as a source of nitrogen. One class of mutants, which were not affected in the utilization of other nitrogen sources (proline, arginine, glycine), included many isolates with lesions in gamma-aminobutyrate transport or in its transamination and one mutant completely devoid of succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity and exhibiting low gamma-aminobutyrate transport and transamination. gamma-Aminobutyrate-utilizing revertants of the latter recovered full transport and transamination capacities but remained dehydrogenaseless. Another class of mutants showed pleiotropic defects in nitrogen metabolism. One such mutant was lacking glutamate synthase activity. The genes specifying the synthesis of gamma-aminobutyrate permease, gabP, gamma-aminobutyrate transaminase, gabT, and succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase, gabD, and the control gene, gabC, that coordinately regulates their expression all form a cluster on the E. coli chromosome, linked to the srl and recA loci (at 57.5 min). The mutations with pleiotropic effects on the metabolism of nitrogenous compounds are not linked to the gab cluster.