Pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway of Pseudomonas fluorescens

Pyrimidine biosynthesis in Pseudomonas fluorescens strain A126 was investigated. In this study, de novo pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway mutant strains were isolated using both conventional mutagenesis and transposon mutagenesis. The resulting mutant strains were deficient for either aspartate transcarbamoylase, dihydroorotase or orotate phosphoribosyltransferase activity. Uracil, uridine or cytosine could support the growth of every mutant strain selected. In addition, the aspartate transcarbamoylase mutant strains could utilize orotic acid to sustain their growth while the orotidine-5'-monophosphate decarboxylase mutant strains grew slowly upon uridine 5'-monophosphate. The wild-type strain and the mutant strains were used to study possible regulation of de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis in P. fluorescens. Dihydroorotase specific activity more than doubled after the wild-type cells were grown in orotic acid relative to unsupplemented minimal-medium-grown cells. Starving the mutant strains of pyrimidines also influenced the levels of several de novo pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway enzyme activities.     

Mouse Mutant Deficient in d-Amino Acid Oxidase Activity

D-Amino acid oxidase activity in the kidney homogenates of mice of seven strains was measured to search for a mutant for this enzyme. There was a consistent sex difference in the enzyme activity in these strains: male mice showed higher levels of the enzyme activity than females. In contrast to other strains, some mice of the ddY strain did not possess enzyme activity. This trait was inheritable, and a mouse stock without enzyme activity (DAO-) was established. The allele (Dao-1c) carried by the DAO- mice was recessive and behaved as a single autosomal gene in inheritance. Heterozygous mice for this gene (Dao-1+/Dao-1c) showed nearly half the enzyme activity of the wild-type homozygotes (Dao-1+/Dao-1+), suggesting that Dao-1c is a null allele and that there is a gene dosage effect on the enzyme activity.     

Identification of the structural gene and nonsense alleles for adenylate cyclase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Tetraploid strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae carrying different dosages of the CYR1+ gene have been constructed. Adenylate cyclase activity observed in these tetraploid strains was proportional to the dosage of the active CYR1+ gene. Of the 57 mutants requiring adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate for growth at 35 degrees C, two allelic temperature-sensitive cyr1 mutants produced thermolabile adenylate cyclase. Crude extract and plasma membrane fraction of cyr1 mutant cells had no adenylate cyclase activity when assayed with GTP or 5'-guanylyl imidodiphosphate in the presence of Mn2+ or Mg2+. Plasma membrane and Lubrol-soluble plasma membrane fractions obtained from the temperature-sensitive cyr1 mutant were thermolabile compared with those from the wild-type strain. Three cyr1 mutants carried nonsense mutations susceptible to ochre (UAA) suppressors, SUP3 and SUP-o, and had no detectable level of adenylate cyclase activity. It is concluded that the cyr1 mutants carry lesions in the structural gene for adenylate cyclase.     

Control of Neurospora crassa morphology by cyclic adenosine 3'', 5''-monophosphate and dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3'', 5''-monophosphate.

The role of cyclic adenosine 3', 5'-monophosphate (cyclic AMP) in the control of the Neurospora asexual life cycle was studied. Endogenous cyclic AMP levels were 10 to 20 times higher in strains having the wild-type cr-1 allele than in those carrying the mutated allele. In a wild-type strain these levels remained constant throughtout the entire growth period in shaken liquid cultures, except during a short period at the beginning of the stationary growth phase. In this period a marked increase in the cyclic nucleotide level was observed. The culture of cr-1 mutant strains in the presence of cyclic AMP or its dibutyryl derivative restores some morphological properties characteristic of wild-type strains. Specifically these cyclic nucleotides stimulated the rate of mycelial elongation, as well as the differentiation of aerial hyphae.     

Isolation and Partial Characterization of Escherichia coli Mutants with Low Levels of Transfer Ribonucleic Acid Nucleotidyltransferase

To determine the function of the enzyme transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) nucleotidyltransferase in vivo, five mutants of Escherichia coli containing low levels of this enzyme were isolated. Since no selection procedure for such mutants existed, these strains were isolated by assay of large numbers of colonies from a heavily mutagenized stock. A procedure employing cells made permeable to tRNA and ATP was used to screen the large number of colonies required for the isolation. All the mutants contained less than 20% of the normal level of the AMP-incorporating activity of tRNA nucleotidyltransferase in extracts prepared by several methods, and the best mutant contained only about 2% of this activity. Three of the mutants also had equally low levels of the cytidine 5'-monophosphate-incorporating activity of the enzyme. Despite these low activities, the mutant strains displayed relatively normal growth characteristics at all temperatures examined. The enzyme in the mutant strains was not temperature sensitive, nor were any other abnormal biochemical properties detected. tRNA isolated from the mutant strains was missing significant amounts of its 3' terminal adenosine 5'-monophosphate residue, amounting to 10 to 15% in the best mutant. However, only small amounts of the terminal cytidine 5'-monophosphate residue were missing. The results indicate that tRNA nucleotidyltransferase is involved in some aspect of synthesis or repair of the 3' terminus of tRNA, and that the enzyme is present in large excess over its requirements for this function.     

Thymidine 5′-Monophosphate-Requiring Mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Are Deficient in Thymidylate Synthetase

Thymidylate synthetase activity was measured in crude extracts of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by a sensitive radiochemical assay. Spontaneous non-conditional mutants auxotrophic for thymidine 5'-monophosphate (tmp1) lacked detectable thymidylate synthetase activity in cell-free extracts. In contrast, the parent strains (tup1, -2, or -4), which were permeable to thymidine 5'-monophosphate, contained levels of activity similar to those found in wild-type cells. Specific activity of thymidylate synthetase in crude extracts of normal cells or of cells carrying tup mutations was essentially unaffected by the ploidy or mating type of the cells, by the medium used for growth, by the respiratory capacity of the cells, by concentrations of exogenous thymidine 5'-monophosphate as high as 50 mug/ml, or by subsequent removal of thymidine 5'-monophosphate from the medium. Extracts of a strain bearing the temperature-sensitive cell division cycle mutation cdc21 lacked detectable thymidylate synthetase activity under all conditions tested. Its parent and another mutant (cdc8), which arrests with the same terminal phenotype under restrictive conditions, had normal levels of the enzyme. Cells of a temperature-sensitive thymidine 5'-monophosphate auxotroph arrested with a morphology identical to the cdc21 strain at the nonpermissive temperature and contained demonstrably thermolabile thymidylate synthetase activity. Tetrad analysis and the properties of revertants showed that the thymidylate synthetase defects were a consequence of the same mutation causing, in the auxotrophs, a requirement for thymidine 5'-monophosphate and, in the conditional mutants, temperature sensitivity. Complementation tests indicated that tmp1 and cdc21 are the same locus. These results identify tmp1 as the structural gene for yeast thymidylate synthetase.     

Mutant alleles for hypoxanthine phosphoriboxyltransferase: codominant expression, complementation, and segregation in hybrid Chinese hamster cells.

Chinese hamster ovary cell mutants resistant to the purine analogs 6-thioguanine or 8-azaguanine have been isolated following mutagenesis with ethyl methane sulfonate. The activities of hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) in three such mutants have been found to exhibit an increased Km for the substrate 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate. The isoelectric point of the mutant enzyme activity has also changed in two mutants. Hybrid cells containing one mutant and one wild-type allele express both genes. Segregants that have lost only the wild-type allele can be selected on the basis of drug resistance. Two mutants exhibiting different alterations in HPRT activity can complement in a hybrid cell to yield a wild-type growth pattern and enzyme activity with intermediate electrophoretic and kinetic properties. The results suggest intracistronic complementation between structural gene mutants of HPRT.     

Mutants of Chinese hamster cells deficient in thymidylate synthetase

Stable mutants of Chinese hamster V79 cells deficient in thymidylate synthetase (TS; E.C. 2.1.1.45) have been selected from cultures grown in medium supplemented with folinic acid, aminopterin, and thymidine (FAT). After chemical mutagenesis, the frequency of colonies resistant to the "FAT" medium increased more than 100-fold over the spontaneous frequency. The optimal expression time of the mutant phenotype was 5-7 days after mutagen treatment. The recovery of FAT-resistant colonies in the selective medium was not affected by the presence of wild-type cells at a density below 9,000 cells per cm2. All 21 mutants tested exhibited thymidine auxotrophy; neither folinic acid nor deoxyuridine could support mutant cell growth. There was no detectable TS activity in all 11 mutants so far examined and only about 50% of wild-type activity in three prototrophic revertants, as measured by whole-cell and cell-free enzyme assays. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) for deoxyuridine-5'-monophosphate and inhibition constant (Ki) for 5-fluoro-deoxyuridine-5'-monophosphate, measured by whole-cell enzyme assay, appear to be similar for the wild-type and revertant cell lines. Using 5-fluoro-[6-3H]-2'-deoxyuridine 5'-monophosphate as active site titrant, the relative amounts of TS in crude cell extract from the parental, revertant, and mutant cells were shown to exist in a 1:0.5:0 ratio. Furthermore, the enzymes from two revertants were more heat labile than that of V79 cells. These properties, taken together, suggest that the FAT-resistant, thymidine auxotrophic phenotype may be the result of a structural gene mutation at the TS locus. The availability of such a mutant facilitates studies on thymidylate stress in relation to DNA metabolism, cell growth, and mutagenesis.     

The ADH gene-enzyme system and the fitness of Drosophila melanogaster mutants]

Physico-chemical properties of ADH and some fitness parameters were examined in two mutant (cn and vg) and two wild-type (C-S and D) strains of Drosophila melanogaster. It was shown that, under the experimental conditions, longevity, fecundity and heat resistance did not depend on the activity and the electrophoretic mobility of enzymes. The Adh gene-enzyme system of the mutants was analyzed in relation to the saturation of their genotypes with genes of wild-type flies having different allelic control of the enzyme. ADH activity was shown to be positively correlated with the frequency of F allele of the structural gene (r = 0.84), whereas thermostability of the enzyme was not associated with electrophoretic mobility. Low thermostability of ADH in vg mutants, which was correlated with low heat resistance (r = 0.94), is assumed to be controlled by the thermostable allele Adh Fs.     

Defects of two temperature-sensitive lysyl-transfer ribonucleic acid synthetase mutants of Bacillus subtilis

Two temperature-sensitive mutants (lysS1 and lysS2) of the lysyl-transfer ribonucleic acid synthetase (l-lysine:tRNA ligase [adenosine 5'-monophosphate], EC 6.1.1.6) of Bacillus subtilis have been isolated. Although protein synthesis is inhibited in both mutants at the restrictive temperature (42 to 45 C), the mutants remain viable in a minimal medium. In comparison with the wild-type lysyl-tRNA synthetase, the l-lysine-dependent exchange of [(32)P]pyrophosphate with adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) for both mutant enzymes is decreased. The lysS1 enzyme is completely defective in the ATP-dependent attachment of l-lysine to tRNA, whereas the lysS2 enzyme has 3- to 10-fold reduced levels of this activity. Temperature-resistant transformants have wild-type enzyme levels, whereas partial revertants to temperature resistance have varied levels of enzyme activity. The attachment and exchange activities of the lysS2 enzyme are more heat labile in vitro than the wild-type enzyme, as is the attachment activity of a partial revertant of the lysS1 mutant. The lysS1 and the lysS2 lysyl-tRNA synthetases have higher apparent K(m) values for lysine and ATP, in both the activation and the attachment reactions. The lysS2 enzyme has a V(max) for tRNA(lys) one-third that of the wild-type enzyme. Molecular weights of approximately 150,000 for the wild-type and lysS2 enzymes and approximately 76,000 for the lysS1 enzyme were estimated from sedimentation positions in sucrose density gradients assayed by the ATP-pyrophosphate exchange activity. We propose that the two mutations (lysS1 and lysS2) directly affect the sites for exchange activity, but indirectly alter attachment activity as a consequence of defective subunit association.     

Gene dosage effect of L-proline biosynthetic enzymes on L-proline accumulation and freeze tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We have previously reported that L-proline has cryoprotective activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A freeze-tolerant mutant with L-proline accumulation was recently shown to carry an allele of the PRO1 gene encoding gamma-glutamyl kinase, which resulted in a single amino acid substitution (Asp154Asn). Interestingly, this mutation enhanced the activities of gamma-glutamyl kinase and gamma-glutamyl phosphate reductase, both of which catalyze the first two steps of L-proline synthesis and which together may form a complex in vivo. Here, we found that the Asp154Asn mutant gamma-glutamyl kinase was more thermostable than the wild-type enzyme, which suggests that this mutation elevated the apparent activities of two enzymes through a stabilization of the complex. We next examined the gene dosage effect of three L-proline biosynthetic enzymes, including Delta(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase, which converts Delta(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate into L-proline, on L-proline accumulation and freeze tolerance in a non-L-proline-utilizing strain. Overexpression of the wild-type enzymes has no influence on L-proline accumulation, which suggests that the complex is very unstable in nature. However, co-overexpression of the mutant gamma-glutamyl kinase and the wild-type gamma-glutamyl phosphate reductase was effective for L-proline accumulation, probably due to a stabilization of the complex. These results indicate that both enzymes, not Delta(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase, are rate-limiting enzymes in yeast cells. A high tolerance for freezing clearly correlated with higher levels of L-proline in yeast cells. Our findings also suggest that, in addition to its cryoprotective activity, intracellular L-proline could protect yeast cells from damage by oxidative stress. The approach described here provides a valuable method for breeding novel yeast strains that are tolerant of both freezing and oxidative stresses.     

The origin of the high sensitivity of muscle fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase towards AMP

Adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) inhibits muscle fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase) about 44 times stronger than the liver isozyme. The key role in strong AMP binding to muscle isozyme play K20, T177 and Q179. Muscle FBPase which has been mutated towards the liver enzyme (K20E/T177M/Q179C) is inhibited by AMP about 26 times weaker than the wild-type muscle enzyme, but it binds the fluorescent AMP analogue, 2',3'-O-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)adenosine 5'-monophosphate (TNP-AMP), similarly to the wild-type liver enzyme. The reverse mutation of liver FBPase towards the muscle isozyme significantly increases the affinity of the mutant to TNP-AMP. High affinity to the inhibitor but low sensitivity to AMP of the liver triple mutant suggest differences between the isozymes in the mechanism of allosteric signal transmission.     

Aminopeptidase yscII of yeast. Isolation of mutants and their biochemical and genetic analysis

Mutant strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae defective in aminopeptidase yscII were isolated by screening for reduced external activity against the chromogenic substrate lysine beta-naphthylamide. One of the selected mutant strains analyzed in detail showed wild-type staining activity when tested at 23 degrees C but mutant activity after exposure to 37 degrees C, suggesting a temperature-sensitive mutation. Electrophoretic separation of mutant crude extracts on non-denaturing polyacrylamide gels and subsequent activity staining using lysine and leucine beta-naphthylamides as substrates revealed that in all strains isolated the same distinct activity band was affected, which corresponded to the aminopeptidase activity identified previously as aminopeptidase yscII [Achstetter, T., Ehmann, C. & Wolf, D. H. (1983) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 226, 292-305]. All mutants strains isolated fell into the same complementation group. Tetrad dissection of sporulated diploids heterozygous for the wild-type and mutant allele resulted in a 2:2 segregation of mutant and wild-type phenotype indicating a single gene mutation. The characteristics of the mutations analyzed point to the gene which we called APE2 as the structural gene of aminopeptidase yscII. No vital consequences of aminopeptidase yscII deficiency on cell life and differentiation could be detected. However, the enzyme seems to be involved in the cellular supply of leucine from externally offered leucine-containing dipeptide substrates.     

Arg-7 mutant x wild-type crosses in Chlamydomonas reinhardi: Study of the enzyme produced in diploid strains

Summary The arg-7 locus is the structural gene for the argininosuccinate lyase (ASL). Interallelic complementation was previously found to occur between several mutants of the locus: this is indicative for the homomultimeric nature of ASL.Two complementing (arg-7-5 and arg-7-7) and two non-complementing (arg-7-1 and arg-7-6) mutants of the arg-7 locus were crossed to the pab-2 strain (which is wild-type for the arg-7 locus). In each cross, heterozygote phenotypically wild-type strains were isolated; their diploid pattern was demonstrated by various criteria: mating type, cell volume, nuclear size.The four heterozygotes were compared to the haploid wild-type and in some experiments, to the diploid strain arg-1xpab-2 homozygous for the arg-7 locus. No difference was found in growth rate and in the Michaelis constant values for ASL. The specific activity of the enzyme produced in the heterozygotes was about 50 percent of the activity found in haploid or diploid wild-type. The heat sensitivity of ASL was also investigated in the different strains: two (containing the complementing mutations arg-7-5 and arg-7-7) of the four heterozygotes produce ASL varieties different from the wild-type enzyme as far as the thermolability is concerned.These results suggest that hybrid ASL can be formed by interaction between the products of wild-type and mutant genes. A clear dominance of the wild-type allele is expected only when the mutant allele has no product of the gene: this could be the case for arg-7-1 and arg-7-6.     

prsB is an allele of the Salmonella typhimurium prsA gene: characterization of a mutant phosphoribosylpyrophosphate synthetase.

The Salmonella typhimurium prsB mutation was previously mapped at 45 min on the chromosome, and a prsB strain was reported to produce undetectable levels of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP) synthetase activity and very low levels of immunologically cross-reactive protein in vitro (N.K. Pandey and R.L. Switzer, J. Gen. Microbiol, 128:1863-1871, 1982). We have shown by P22-mediated transduction that the prsB gene is actually an allele of prsA, the structural gene for PRPP synthetase, which maps at 35 min. The prsB (renamed prs-100) mutant produces about 20% of the activity and 100% of the cross-reactive material of wild-type strains. prs-100 mutant strains are temperature sensitive, as is the mutant PRPP synthetase in vitro. The prs-100 mutation is a C-to-T transition which results in replacement of Arg-78 in the mature wild-type enzyme by Cys. The mutant PRPP synthetase was purified to greater than 98% purity. It possessed elevated Michaelis constants for both ATP and ribose-5-phosphate, a reduced maximal velocity, and reduced sensitivity to the allosteric inhibitor ADP. The mutant enzyme had altered physical properties and was susceptible to specific cleavage at the Arg-101-to-Ser-102 bond in vivo. It appears that the mutation alters the enzyme's kinetic properties through substantial structural alterations rather than by specific perturbation of substrate binding or catalysis.     

The cloned dopa decarboxylase gene is developmentally regulated when reintegrated into the Drosophila genome

The Drosophila dopa decarboxylase gene, Ddc, functions normally when reintroduced into flies. DNA containing a cloned Ddc gene inserted into a P element transposon was injected into early embryos. Transformants were identified by suppression of the cuticular phenotype of a Ddc mutant allele. The reintegrated genes are expressed in the proper tissue and at the proper stages during development even though their positions within the genome are different from that of the wild-type Ddc gene. Absolute levels of DDC enzyme activity are within 35% of that found in wild-type Canton S flies, the source of the transforming DNA. The transformants' Ddc RNA is indistinguishable from that of wild type. One reintegrated Ddc gene, inserted on the X chromosome, is affected by the dosage compensation mechanism that leads to sex-specific differences in the expression of many X-chromosome genes.     

On the molecular basis of the thermal sensitivity of an Escherichia coli topA mutant.

Studies of two temperature-sensitive Escherichia coli topA strains AS17 and BR83, both of which were supposed to carry a topA amber mutation and a temperature-sensitive supD43,74 amber-suppressor, led to conflicting results regarding the essentiality of DNA topoisomerase I in cells grown in media of low osmolarity. We have therefore reexamined the molecular basis of the temperature sensitivity of strain AS17. We find that the supD allele in this strain had lost its temperature sensitivity. The temperature sensitivity of the strain, in media of all osmolarity, results from the synthesis of a mutant DNA topoisomerase I that is itself temperature-sensitive. Nucleotide sequencing of the AS17 topA allele and studies of its expected cellular product show that the mutant enzyme is not as active as its wild-type parent even at 30 degrees C, a permissive temperature for the strain, and its activity relative to the wild-type enzyme is further reduced at 42 degrees C, a nonpermissive temperature. Our results thus implicate an indispensable role of DNA topoisomerase I in E. coli cells grown in media of any osmolarity.     

Selection and study of a Candida molischiana mutant derepressed for β-glucosidase production

Abstract A mutant strain of Candida molischiana was selected. Analysis of the exocellular activity of Candida molischiana 35M5N grown on different carbon sources revealed that the biosynthesis of β-glucosidase is derepressed in this yeast strain. The strain is not a hyper-producer mutant. There were no observed differences in the endocellular and parietal activities of the wild and mutant strains. However, the mutant strain produced 35-fold more enzyme than the wild-type in the culture medium with glucose as carbon source. When glucose was used as carbon source, the mutant strain produced 90% more exocellular enzyme than when cellobiose was used as the carbon source.     

Streptococcus pneumoniae DNA polymerase I lacks 3''-to-5'' exonuclease activity: localization of the 5''-to-3'' exonucleolytic domain.

The Streptococcus pneumoniae polA gene was altered at various positions by deletions and insertions. The polypeptides encoded by these mutant polA genes were identified in S. pneumoniae. Three of them were enzymatically active. One was a fused protein containing the first 11 amino acid residues of gene 10 from coliphage T7 and the carboxyl-terminal two-thirds of pneumococcal DNA polymerase I; it possessed only polymerase activity. The other two enzymatically active proteins, which contained 620 and 351 amino acid residues from the amino terminus, respectively, lacked polymerase activity and showed only exonuclease activity. These two polymerase-deficient proteins and the wild-type protein were hyperproduced in Escherichia coli and purified. In contrast to the DNA polymerase I of Escherichia coli but similar to the corresponding enzyme of Thermus aquaticus, the pneumococcal enzyme appeared to lack 3'-to-5' exonuclease activity. The 5'-to-3' exonuclease domain was located in the amino-terminal region of the wild-type pneumococcal protein. This exonuclease activity excised deoxyribonucleoside 5'-monophosphate from both double- and single-stranded DNAs. It degraded oligonucleotide substrates to a decameric final product.