Bacterial type I glutamine synthetase of the rifamycin SV producing actinomycete, Amycolatopsis mediterranei U32, is the only enzyme responsible for glutamine synthesis under physiological conditions

The structural gene for glutamine synthetase, glnA, from Amycolatopsis mediterranei U32 was cloned via screening a genomic library using the analog gene from Streptomyces coelicolor. The clone was functionally verified by complementing for glutamine requirement of an Escherichia coli glnA null mutant under the control of a lac promoter. Sequence analysis showed an open reading frame encoding a protein of 466 amino acid residues. The deduced amino acid sequence bears significant homologies to other bacterial type I glutamine synthetases, specifically, 71% and 72% identical to the enzymes of S. coelicolor and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, respectively. Disruption of this glnA gene in A. mediterranei U32 led to glutamine auxotrophy with no detectable glutamine synthetase activity in vivo. In contrast, the cloned glnA^＋ gene can complement for both phenotypes in trans. It thus suggested that in A. mediterranei U32, the glnA gene encoding glutamine synthetase is uniquely responsible for in vivo glutamine synthesis under our laboratory defined physiological conditions.     

Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the Streptomyces coelicolor gene encoding glutamine synthetase

The Streptomyces coelicolor glutamine synthetase (GS) structural gene (glnA) was cloned by complementing the glutamine growth requirement of an Escherichia coli strain containing a deletion of its glnALG operon. Expression of the cloned S. coelicolor glnA gene in E. coli cells was found to require an E. coli plasmid promoter. The nucleotide sequence of an S. coelicolor 2280-bp DNA segment containing the glnA gene was determined and the complete glnA amino acid sequence deduced. Comparison of the derived S. coelicolor GS protein sequence with the amino acid sequences of GS from other bacteria suggests that the S. coelicolor GS protein is more similar to the GS proteins from Gram-negative bacteria than it is with the GS proteins from two Gram-positive bacteria, Bacillus subtilis and Clostridium acetobutylicum.     

Organization and nucleotide sequence of the glutamine synthetase (glnA) gene from Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus.

A 3.3-kb BamHI fragment of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus DNA was cloned and sequenced. It complements an Escherichia coli glnA deletion strain and hybridizes strongly to a DNA containing the Bacillus subtilis glnA gene. DNA sequence analysis of the L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus DNA showed it to contain the glnA gene encoding class I glutamine synthetase, as judged by extensive homology with other prokaryotic glnA genes. The sequence suggests that the enzyme encoded in this gene is not controlled by adenylylation. Based on a comparison of glutamine synthetase sequences, L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus is much closer to gram-positive eubacteria, especially Clostridium acetobutylicum, than to gram-negative eubacteria and archaebacteria. The fragment contains another open reading frame encoding a protein of unknown function consisting of 306 amino acids (ORF306), which is also present upstream of glnA of Bacillus cereus. In B. cereus, a repressor gene, glnR, is found between the open reading frame and glnA. Two proteins encoded by the L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus gene were identified by the maxicell method; the sizes of these proteins are consistent with those of the open reading frames of ORF306 and glnA. The lack of a glnR gene in the L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus DNA in this position may indicate a gene rearrangement or a different mechanism of glnA gene expression.