Pleiotropic consequences of mutations towards antibiotic-hypersensitivity in Serratia marcescens

Various mutants (oxa ^s ) were isolated from Serratia marcescens SM-6 by selecting for hypersensitivity towards oxacillin. All mutants found are highly pleiotropic and able to yield spontaneous revertants which behave like the wild-type. Mutant W 1421 mostly studied shows the following phenotypic properties not found in the wild-type: (1) The growth is hypersensitive to various antibiotics, detergents and dyes which differ remarkably in their chemical structure and antibacterial action-mechanism, (2) the cells can be easily solubilized by 0.05% Sodium-dodecylsulfate, (3) the cells allow the adsorption of the roughmutant specific Salmonella phage 6SR, (4) strong cellular binding of crystal violet, (5) agglutination of the cells in 0.3% auramin solution and (6) reduced formation of red pigment. Strain W 1421 is assumed to be a lipopolysaccharide-defective mutant. The outer membrane of mutant W 1421 analyzed by Sodiumdodecylsulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis possesses a single protein less than that of the wild-type. Mutant W 1421 is further characterized by its low exolipase activity; exoprotease and exonuclease activities are as in the wild-type. This specific exoenzyme deficiency can be overcome either by backmutation to oxacillin-resistance or by growing mutant W 1421 in a medium supplemented with certain non-metabolizable polysaccharides, e.g. glycogen or pectin B. Both polysaccharides increase the exolipase activity of the wild-type too.List of Abbreviations amp ampicillin - LPS lipopolysaccharide - MIC minimal inhibitory concentration - NB nutrient broth - oxa oxacillin - str streptomycin - TBY tryptone broth with yeast extract - SDS sodium-dodecylsulfate - OD optical density This paper is dedicated to Prof. Dr. R. W. Kaplan, University of Frankfurt/M., on the occasion of his 65th birthday     

Gene dosage studies with pleiotropic mutants of Serratia marcescens superactive in the synthesis of marcescin A and certain other exocellular proteins

Summary Pleiotropic mutants of Serratia marcescens have been isolated. They synthesize greater quantities of the bacteriocin marcescin A and exocellular lipase and exhibit higher rates of spontaneous induction of prophage than does the wild-type strain. These mutants were found to contain more marcescin A plasmid DNA than the parent strain and, furthermore, this increase in plasmid DNA was observed to be proportional to the increase in synthesis of marcescin A. From these results it is proposed that the mutation functions via a gene-dosage effect (at least in the case of bacteriocin synthesis) and causes an elevated synthesis of bacteriocin plasmid DNA.A preliminary report of this work was presented to the 1972 Summer Meeting of the Gesellschaft für Physiologische Chemie held in Bochum, Germany (Timmis and Winkler, 1972).     

Regulation of carbamylphosphate synthesis in Serratia marcescens.

Serratia marcescens HY possessed a single carbamylphosphate synthase (CPSase) which was subject to cumulative repression by arginine and a pyrimidine. CPSase did not appear to be a part of a multifunctional enzyme complex as is the case for other enzymes of pyrimidine biosynthesis in this organism. CPSase was purified to homogeneity. The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be 167,000 by sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation. The double-reciprocal plot for magnesium adenosine triphosphate was linear, yielding a Km value of 2.5 mM. The enzyme utilized either glutamine (Km, 0.1 mM) or NH3 (Km, 10.5 mM) as a nitrogen donor in the reaction. CPSase activity was subject to activation by ornithine and feedback inhibition by uridine monophosphate, as is the case for other enteric bacteria. Carbamate kinase activity, detected in crude extracts of S. marcescens, was shown to be due to a constitutive acetate kinase. The absence of carbamate kinase from S. marcescens HY is consistent with the inability of this organism to utilize arginine as a source of energy under anaerobic conditions.     

Inverse relationship between the flagella formation and prodigiosin synthesis in Serratia marcescens

Treatment by polymyxin B sulfate and ethylenediaminetetraacetate separated a 40 kilodalton (kDa) protein from the nonpigmented Serratia marcescens and even from the nonpigmented bacteria of the pigmented strains, whereas the same treatment separated the 100 kDa protein associated with the pigment formation from the pigmented bacteria. Lysozyme treatment separated the 100 kDa and/or 40 kDa proteins correlated with the pigmented level. The 40 kDa protein was not an outer membrane protein but a flagellin. These results suggest that the flagella formation was inversely related with the pigment formation.     

Nuclear mutations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae which increase the spontaneous mutation frequency in mitochondrial DNA.

Summary Fourteen mutants have been identified in which the frequency of spontaneous mutations in mitochondrial DNA is increased. As well as increasing the frequency of mutations to resistance to erythromycin, oligomycin and spiramycin, all the mutants also show changes in the frequency of spontaneous petite induction. None of the mutants has any effect on the frequency of spontaneous nuclear mutations. Nine of the mutants are in one complementation group and five are in another. The phenotype of both groups is caused by a single nuclear mutation.     

Cloning of the Serratia marcescens recA gene and construction of a Serratia marcescens recA mutant

A recombinant plasmid, pSM2513, containing an 8.5 kb DNA insert was isolated from a genomic library of Serratia marcescens by using interspecific complementation. This plasmid conferred resistance to methyl methanesulphonate and UV irradiation upon recA mutants of Escherichia coli and enhanced recombination proficiency, as measured by Hfr-mediated conjugation, in recA mutants of E. coli. Furthermore, when recA mutants of E. coli harbouring pSM2513 were subjected to UV irradiation, filamentation of the cells was observed. This did not occur upon UV irradiation of the same mutants harbouring the cloning vector alone. These results imply that the S. marcescens recA gene on pSM2513 is functionally similar to the E. coli recA gene in several respects. Restriction enzyme analysis and subcloning studies revealed that the S. marcescens recA gene was located on a 2.7 kb Bg/II-KpnI fragment of pSM2513, and its gene product of approximately 39 kDa resembled the E. coli RecA protein in molecular mass. Using transformation-mediated marker rescue, a recA mutant of S. marcescens was successfully constructed; its proficiency both in homologous recombination and in DNA repair was abolished compared with its parent.     

Separation of the prodigiosin-localizing crude vesicles which retain the activity of protease and nuclease in Serratia marcescens.

Crude vesicles in which prodigiosin is localized were separated from pigmented Serratia marcescens. The bacteria were grown on peptone-glycerol agar plate, suspended in saline, and fractionated into cells, vesicles, and supernatant by differential centrifugation. Electron microscopic observations showed that the fractionation was conducted properly and the separated vesicles were lysed in distilled water. The vesicles suspended in saline retained 100 kilodalton protein of which amount is correlated with prodigiosin level, but the 100 kDa protein was found in the supernatant when the vesicles were lysed in distilled water. The vesicle fraction retained few colony-forming units and little detectable activity of NADH oxidase, but showed much higher activities of protease and nuclease than the cell fraction. The profiles of the activities of the protease and the nuclease in the fractions were different from each other, that is, the protease activity in the vesicle fraction was lower than that in the supernatant fraction, whereas the nuclease activity in the vesicle fraction was higher than that in the supernatant fraction, suggesting that the two extracellular enzymes were released from the pigmented bacteria by different mechanisms.     

Identification by computer sequence analysis of transcriptional regulator proteins in Dictyostelium discoideum and Serratia marcescens

We have performed computer searches in the database of known protein sequences for proteins similar in sequence to bacteriophage regulatory proteins of known 3-D structure. The searches are more selective than other methods due to the use of a length-dependent threshold in sequence similarity, above which structural homology is implied with high certainty. Two probable DNA binding proteins were identified which are predicted to have a three-dimensional structure very similar to bacteriophage cro and repressor proteins. Approximate three-dimensional model coordinates are available from the authors. Both proteins contain the helix-turn-helix sequence motif typical of a wide class of DNA binding proteins and their function is deduced by analogy to sequence-similar proteins of known function. We predict that the Y.Smal protein in the restriction-modification enzyme gene locus of the enterobacterium serratia marcescens is a regulator of endonuclease expression; and, that the vegetative specific gene VSH7 of the slime mold dictyostelium discoideum codes for a regulator of gene expression specific for the slime mold growth phase before the onset of the developmental program. Point mutations that would have a strong effect on growth regulation phenotype are suggested. The VSH7 protein would be the first eukaryotic representative of the cro/phage repressor class.     

Isolation of Serratia marcescens mutants which could overproduce and excrete Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase and beta-lactamase

Serratia marcescens mutants, which excrete Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase (APase) encoded by the plasmid-bearing phoA gene, were isolated after mutagenesis by N-methyl--nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. These mutants produced two to four times as much APase as did the parent strain under a phosphate-limiting condition, and more than 70% of the enzyme was released into the culture medium. In addition, overproduction and excretion of beta-lactamase was observed in these mutants.     

Mapping of mutations affecting synthesis of exocellular enzymes in Bacillus subtilis

Summary The sacU ^h , amyB and pap mutations are identical with respect to their pleiotropic phenotype and their genetic location. Strains bearing these mutations overproduce several exocellular enzymes: -amylase, lavansucrase and proteases, they are poorly or not at all transformable and most of them are devoid of flagella. These mutations are tightly linked to the sacU ^- mutations by transformation and therefore lie between the hisA1 and gtaB290 markers. It is possible that the sacU ^h , amyB and pap mutations on one hand and the sacU ^- mutations on the other are two different classes of alterations of the same regulatory gene controlling the synthesis of some exocellular enzymes and several other cellular functions. Furthermore an amy ^- mutation, leading to the lack of -amylase activity, was mapped between the lin2 and aroI906 markers which are not linked to the sacU locus.