Leucine regulation of the ilvGEDA operon of Serratia marcescens by attenuation is modulated by a single leucine codon.

The effect of leucine limitation and of restricted leucine tRNA charging on the expression of the ilvGEDA operon of Serratia marcescens was examined. In this organism, the ilv leader region specifies a putative peptide containing only a single leucine codon that could be involved in leucine-mediated control by attenuation (E. Harms, J.-H. Hsu, C. S. Subrahmanyam, and H. E. Umbarger, J. Bacteriol. 164:207-216, 1985). A plasmid (pPU134) containing the DNA of the S. marcescens ilv control region and three of the associated structural genes was studied as a single chromosomal copy in an Escherichia coli strain auxotrophic for all three branched-chain amino acids. The S. marcescens ilv genes responded to a multivalent control similar to that found in other enteric organisms. Furthermore, the S. marcescens ilv genes were derepressed when the charging of leucine tRNA was restricted in a leuS derivative of E. coli that had been transformed with pPU134. It was concluded that ribosome stalling leading to deattenuation is not dependent on either tandem or a consecutive series of codons for the regulatory amino acid. However, the fact that the single leucine codon is a less frequently used codon (CUA) may be important. The procedure for obtaining the cloned ilv genes in single chromosomal copy exploited the dependence of ColE1 replicons on the polA gene. The cloning experiments also revealed a branched-chain amino acid-glutamate transaminase in S. marcescens that is different from transaminase B.     

The rpsD gene, encoding ribosomal protein S4, is autogenously regulated in Bacillus subtilis.

Although the mechanisms for regulation of ribosomal protein gene expression have been established for gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, the regulation of these genes in gram-positive bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis has not yet been characterized. In this study, the B. subtilis rpsD gene, encoding ribosomal protein S4, was found to be subject to autogenous control. In E. coli, rpsD is located in the alpha operon, and S4 acts as the translational regulator for alpha operon expression, binding to a target site in the alpha operon mRNA. The target site for repression of B. subtilis rpsD by protein S4 was localized by deletion and oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis to the leader region of the monocistronic rpsD gene. The B. subtilis rpsD leader exhibits little sequence homology to the E. coli alpha operon leader but may be able to form a pseudoknotlike structure similar to that found in E. coli.