A decrease in S-adenosylmethionine synthetase activity increases the probability of spontaneous sporulation.

Starting with a relaxed (relA) strain, mutants with reduced activity of adenosine triphosphate:L-methionine S-adenosyl transferase (EC 2.5.1.6; SAM synthetase) were isolated in Bacillus subtilis. One such mutant (gene symbol metE1) had only 3% of the normal SAM synthetase activity but grew almost as well as the parent strain. Another mutant was isolated (gene symbol spdC1) as being able to sporulate continually at a high frequency; it had one-half the normal SAM synthetase activity at 33 degrees C. Both mutants continually and spontaneously entered spore development at a higher frequency than the parent strain in a medium containing excess glucose, ammonium ions, and phosphate. Sporulation was prevented by a high concentration of SAM (1 mM or more) or by the combination of adenosine and methionine (0.5 mM or more each), both of which are precursors of SAM. In contrast to this continual increase in the spore titer, addition of decoyinine, an inhibitor of GMP synthetase, rapidly initiated massive sporulation. Various amino acid analogs also induced sporulation in the relA strain, the methionine analogs ethionine and selenomethionine being most effective.     

Assay and regulation of S-adenosylmethionine synthetase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida utilis.

A simple and sensitive assay for S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) synthetase is described which depends on the quantitative separation of the product, [14CH3]S-adenosylmethionine, from the substrate, L-[14CH3]methionine, on a Bio-Rex 70 column. L-Methionine protects the enzyme during preparation of cell extracts by sonic treatment but causes repression of enzyme activity during growth of Candida utilis. The presence of 5 mM methionine in the growth medium repressed SAM synthetase specific activity threefold compared to the specific acitivity of the enzyme isolated from cells grown in unsupplemented medium. Conversely, the presence of methionine in the growth medium resulted in an 80-fold increase in the intracellular concentration of SAM as compared to the Sam accumulated intracellularly in unsupplemented cultures.     

Sporulation of auxotrophic mutants ofBacillus subtilis in suboptimal concentrations of essential amino acids

The effect of the amino acid concentration on sporulation of five mutants ofBacillus subtilis requiring histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine and methionine for growth was studied. Low amino acid concentrations, permitting about 10–20% of maximum growth, inhibit the ability of the bacteria to sporulate on completing vegetative growth. In medium concentrations (from 25% of maximum growth), leucine, isoleucine, histidine and methionine induce sporulation, while the concentration of the other nutrients in the medium is still adequate for further vegetative growth. The percentage of sporulation depends on the amino acid concentration and is characteristic for each amino acid. The lysine mutant strain 1399 was not capable of sporulation unless cultivated in the presence of the lysine concentration optimal for growth. The effect of amino acid deficiency depends on the cultivation method.     

Mutations affecting the biosynthesis of S-adenosylmethionine cause reduction of DNA methylation in Neurospora crassa.

A temperature-sensitive methionine auxotroph of Neurospora crassa was found in a collection of conditional mutants and shown to be deficient in DNA methylation when grown under semipermissive conditions. The defective gene was identified as met-3, which encodes cystathionine-gamma-synthase. We explored the possibility that the methylation defect results from deficiency of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), the presumptive methyl group donor. Methionine starvation of mutants from each of nine complementation groups in the methionine (met) pathway (met-1, met-2, met-3, met-5, met-6, met-8, met-9, met-10 and for) resulted in decreased DNA methylation while amino acid starvation, per se, did not. In most of the strains, including wild-type, intracellular SAM peaked during rapid growth (12-18 h after inoculation), whereas DNA methylation continued to increase. In met mutants starved for methionine, SAM levels were most reduced (3-11-fold) during rapid growth while the greatest reduction in DNA methylation levels occurred later. Addition of 3 mM methionine to cultures of met or cysteine-requiring (cys) mutants resulted in 5-28-fold increases in SAM, compared with wild-type, at a time when DNA methylation was reduced approximately 40%, suggesting that the decreased methylation during rapid growth in Neurospora is not due to limiting SAM. DNA methylation continued to increase in a cys-3 mutant that had stopped growing due to methionine starvation, suggesting that methylation is not obligatorily coupled to DNA replication in Neurospora.     

Improving methionine and ATP availability by <Emphasis Type="Italic">MET6</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">SAM2</Emphasis> co-expression combined with sodium citrate feeding enhanced SAM accumulation in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Saccharomyces cerevisiae</Emphasis>

S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM), biosynthesized from methionine and ATP, exhibited diverse pharmaceutical applications. To enhance SAM accumulation in S. cerevisiae CGMCC 2842 (wild type), improvement of methionine and ATP availability through MET6 and SAM2 co-expression combined with sodium citrate feeding was investigated here. Feeding 6 g/L methionine at 12 h into medium was found to increase SAM accumulation by 38 % in wild type strain. Based on this result, MET6, encoding methionine synthase, was overexpressed, which caused a 59 % increase of SAM. To redirect intracellular methionine into SAM, MET6 and SAM2 (encoding methionine adenosyltransferase) were co-expressed to obtain the recombinant strain YGSPM in which the SAM accumulation was 2.34-fold of wild type strain. The data obtained showed that co-expression of MET6 and SAM2 improved intracellular methionine availability and redirected the methionine to SAM biosynthesis. To elevate intracellular ATP levels, 6 g/L sodium citrate, used as an auxiliary energy substrate, was fed into the batch fermentation medium, and an additional 19 % increase of SAM was observed after sodium citrate addition. Meanwhile, it was found that addition of sodium citrate improved the isocitrate dehydrogenase activity which was associated with the intracellular ATP levels. The results demonstrated that addition of sodium citrate improved intracellular ATP levels which promoted conversion of methionine into SAM. This study presented a feasible approach with considerable potential for developing highly SAM-productive strains based on improving methionine and ATP availability.     

An ethA mutation in Bacillus subtilis 168 permits induction of sporulation by ethionine and increases DNA modification of bacteriophage phi 105.

In contrast to Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus subtilis could convert ethionine to S-adenosylethionine (SAE), as can Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This conversion was essential for growth inhibition by ethionine because metE mutants which were deficient in S-adenosylmethionine synthetase activity, were resistant to 10 mM ethionine and converted only a small amount of ethionine to SAE. Another mutation (ethA1) produced partial resistance to ethionine (2 mM) and enabled continual sporulation in glucose medium containing 4 mM DL-ethionine. This sporulation induction probably resulted from the effect of SAE, since it was abolished by the addition of a metE1 mutation. The induction of sporulation was not simply controlled by the ratio of SAE to S-adenosylmethionine, but apparently depended on another effect of the ethA1 mutation, which could be demonstrated by comparing the restriction of clear plaque mutants of bacteriophage phi 105 grown in an ethA1 strain with the restriction of those grown in the standard strain. The phages grown in the ethA1 strain showed increased protection against BsuR restriction. We propose that SAE induces sporulation through the inhibition of a key methylation reaction.     

Temperature-sensitive mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae variable in the methionine content of their protein.

Temperature-sensitive mutants were derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae Y5alpha by ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenesis, in a search for mutants that would produce methionine-rich protein at the nonpermissive temperature. A total of 132 mutant strains were selected which showed adequate growth on minimal medium at 25 degrees C but little or no growth on the same medium supplemented with a high concentration (2 mg/ml) of l-methionine at 37 degrees C. Several of these mutants were found to increase the proportion of methionine in their protein to much higher levels than that of the wild-type parent after a temperature shift from 25 to 37 degrees C. Two strains, 476 and 438, which were temperature sensitive only in the presence of methionine, produced cellular protein with methionine contents as high as 3.6 and 4.3%, respectively, when incubated in the presence of methionine. The former strain contained 2.5% methionine even when incubated at 37 degrees C in the absence of methionine. Wild strain Y5alpha, on the other hand, had 1.75% methionine under all conditions tested. Most temperature-sensitive mutants isolated had the same methionine content as the wild strain. It is concluded that the proportion of a specific amino acid, such as methionine, in S. cerevisiae protein can be altered by culturing certain temperature-sensitive mutants at an elevated temperature.     

Sporulation properties of cytochrome a-deficient mutants of Bacillus subtilis

Three classes of cytochrome a-deficient mutants of Bacillus subtilis have been found to be asporogenic or oligosporogenic. All three classes showed declines in adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) concentrations during early sporulation, at a time when ATP levels in wild-type strains are constant. Class III mutants were found to be deficient in aconitase and isocitric dehydrogenase, and showed reduced maximum growth in nutrient sporulation medium. These mutants also suffered the most rapid decline in ATP concentration in early sporulation, and exhibited neither the biphasic oxygen consumption curve nor the increase in pH normally observed at the end of logarithmic growth in nutrient sporulation medium. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide oxidase activities of purified membrane preparations were approximately normal for mutants in all classes, except for two of the class II mutants and one class III mutant. Neither cytochrome a nor cytochrome c appears to be an obligatory intermediate in cyanide-sensitive nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide oxidation in B. subtilis.     

Isolation and characterisation ofCandida sp. mutants enriched in S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)

The ability to accumulate S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) of 572 yeast strains isolated from environmental sources were surveyed. An S-adenosylmethionine enriching strain S42-12, identified asCandida sp., was chose to develop a SAM-accumulating mutant successfully. The final SAM-accumulating mutant strain YQ-5 was isolated by UV radiation or by NTG treatment using ethionine selection and nystatin selection method. The mutant strain YQ-5 accumulated 112.1 mg per gram biomass, was 3.14-fold higher than the original strain S42-12. When cultivated in the optimal medium with a favourable fermentation conditions, SAM content of the mutant strain reached at 1740 mg L^?1. Trend of SAM and ergosterol contents and methionine adenosyltransferase activity of SAM-accumulating mutants during fermentation were analysed. The results suggested that one of the reasons why the mutants accumulated SAM in significantly high amounts may be the lower consumption of SAM for ergosterol biosynthesis, other than improvement of methionine adenosyltransferase activity.     

A new methionine locus, metR, that encodes a trans-acting protein required for activation of metE and metH in Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium.

We isolated an Escherichia coli methionine auxotroph that displays a growth phenotype similar to that of known metF mutants but has elevated levels of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, the metF gene product. Transduction analysis indicates that the mutant carries normal metE, metH, and metF genes; the phenotype is due to a single mutation, eliminating the possibility that the strain is a metE metH double mutant; and the new mutation is linked to the metE gene by P1 transduction. Plasmids carrying the Salmonella typhimurium metE gene and flanking regions complement the mutation, even when the plasmid-borne metE gene is inactivated. Enzyme assays show that the mutation results in a dramatic decrease in metE gene expression, a moderate decrease in metH gene expression, and a disruption of the metH-mediated vitamin B12 repression of the metE and metF genes. Our evidence suggests that the methionine auxotrophy caused by the new mutation is a result of insufficient production of both the vitamin B12-independent (metE) and vitamin B12-dependent (metH) transmethylase enzymes that are necessary for the synthesis of methionine from homocysteine. We propose that this mutation defines a positive regulatory gene, designated metR, whose product acts in trans to activate the metE and metH genes.     

S-adenosylmethionine and morphogenesis inMucor racemosus

The intracellular concentration of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and the specific activity of S-adenosylmethionine synthetase (ATP:l-methionine S-adenosyltransferase, EC 2.5.1.6) were examined in wild-typeMucor racemosus, as well as a morphological mutant termedcoy, under conditions designed to prevent the morphogenesis of yeasts to hyphae. When the mutant was grown in a defined medium supplemented with methionine and induced to shift by exposure to air, there was an increase in intracellular SAM analogous to that previously reported with the wild type. However, when thecoy mutant was grown in the absence of methionine, the intracellular concentration decreased dramatically and the mutant failed to undergo the yeast to hypha transition. An inhibitor of SAM synthetase activity, cycloserine, was used to lower the intracellular concentration of SAM in the wild-type organisms. Under these conditions, wild-typeM. racemosus failed to undergo the transition from yeasts to hyphae when exposed to air.     

The synthesis of S-adenosylmethionine by mutants with defects in S-adenosylmethionine synthetase

Summary Some metK mutants of Salmonella typhimurium with constitutive methionine biosynthesis have no detectable S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) synthetase, the enzyme which converts methionine to SAM, the postulated corepressor of the methionine pathway. However these mutants are not auxotrophic for SAM, an essential compound for many reactions. Here it is shown that these mutants have normal functioning of pathways involving SAM and do in fact produce SAM at as high levels as wild-type. Also, SAM synthetase is shown to be dispensible for growth but not for methionine regulation. These results indicate that there is another route of SAM synthesis independent of SAM synthetase. This route probably also uses methionine as substrate as metK mutants are shown to convert methionine to SAM as efficiently as analogous non-metK strains. The existence of a second route of SAM synthesis makes it necessary to postulate a compartmentalization of SAM made via the SAM synthetase reaction from SAM made in any other way to explain the reduced ability of metK mutants to repress methionine biosynthesis.     

Role of methionine in the regulation of serine hydroxymethyltransferase in Eschericia coli.

Significant derepression of serine hydroxymethyltransferase is observed when metE or metF mutants of Escherichia coli K-12 are grown on D-methionine sulfoxide instead of L-methionine. The derepression is not prevented by addition of glycine, adenosine, guanosine, guanosine, and thymidine to the growth medium of methionine-limited metF cells showing that the effect is not due to a secondary deficiency of these nutrients. On the other hand, methionine-limited growth of a metA mutant leads to derepression of met regulon enzymes, but only a marginal increase in serine hydroxymethyltransferase activity. A prototrophic metJ strain grown on minimal medium has about the same serine hydroxymethyltransferase as the wild type. The enzyme activity of the metJ strain is not influenced by methionine, but it is partially repressed by glycine, adenosine, and thymidine. metK strains have about twice as much serine hydroxymethyltransferase activity as wild-type cells when grown on minimal medium; but when both types of cells are grown on medium supplemented with glycine, adenosine, guanosine, and thymidine, their enzyme activities are about the same. The results show that methionine limitation can lead to depression of serine hydroxymethyltransferase, but that the regulatory system is different from the one which controls the methionine regulon.     

Outgrowth and sporulation studies on Clostridium botulinum type E: influence of isoleucine.

A defined medium (CDM) is described which supported growth and sporulation of type E strains of Clostridium botulinum, but not sporulation of other serotypes of C. botulinum or C. sporogenes. As compared to growth in complex medium, spore outgrowth was delayed and both the growth rate and the cell yield was reduced. However, efficiency of sporulation of the type E MSpt strain in a chemically defined medium (CDM) was the same as that in complex medium and, in fact, sporulation was nearly synchronous and completed within 3 h of the first appearance of phase-bright endospores, compared with completion in 9 h in TPGY. Growth studies with CDM, from which single amino acids were omitted, showed that isoleucine was essential for outgrowth of heat-activated spores of the MSp+ strain, whereas valine was required for that of the Ts-25 mutant. Radioactive isoleucine was incorporated by germinating MSp+ spores at an earlier stage and at a more rapid rate than labelled methionine or mixed amino acids. Uptake studies showed that isoleucine accumulated in a prominent acid-soluble pool during outgrowth, a period when its incorporation into protein was not evident. The results suggest that the isoleucine may be required for a purpose other than protein synthesis during outgrowth.     

Isolation and Characterization of S-Adenosylmethionine-requiring Mutants and Role of S-Adenosylmethionine in the Regulation of Methionine Biosynthesis in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Using a minimal medium containing a methionine analog together with a small amount of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), many SAM requiring mutants which responded only to SAM and not to methionine, S-adenosylhomocysteine, or homocysteine were efficiently isolated from Corynebacterium glutamicum TLD-140 after mutagenesis. Among them, SAM-14 and SAM-19 selected from selenomethionine resistant mutants were subjected to further investigation. Both mutants were unable to grow in a minimal medium and had no detectable activity of SAM synthetase. Both mutants acquired higher resistance to methionine hydroxamate and ethionine as well as to selenomethionine than TLD-140 and produced l-methionine in a medium.

Homoserine-O-transacetylase in SAM-19 was subject to full repression by the addition of excess SAM to the growth medium and was not repressed under SAM limitation, whereas addition of excess l-methionine under SAM limitation caused a partial repression of the enzyme. SAM synthetase as well as l-methionine biosynthetic enzymes in a methionine auxotroph of C. glutamicum was repressed by the addition of l-methionine to the growth medium.

These results suggest that SAM is implicated in the repression of l-methionine synthesizing enzymes in C. glutamicum.     

In vivo hydrolysis of S-adenosyl-L-methionine in Escherichia coli increases export of 5-methylthioribose

Escherichia coli can not synthesize methionine from 5-methylthioribose (MTR) but instead exports this sulfur-containing, energy-rich molecule into the surrounding medium. Transforming E. coli with plasmids that direct expression of the cloned coliphage T3 S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) hydrolase (SAMase) induces the met regulon by cleaving the SAM co-repressor to form 5'-methylthioadenosine, which is then cleaved to produce MTR. To test the effect of in vivo SAMase activity on MTR production and its fate, cultures were incubated in the presence of [35S]methionine and [methyl-3H]methionine. Cells with SAMase activity produced significantly enhanced levels (up to 40-fold in some trials) of extracellular MTR -- the only radiolabeled compound released in significant amounts -- when compared with controls. SAM synthetase (metK) mutants transformed with SAMase expression vectors did not show this increase, verifying the path through SAM as the sole route to MTR production. SAMase expression had little or no effect on intracellular MTR pools, levels of radiolabeled macromolecules, or the transfer of methyl groups to compounds that could be precipitated by trichloroacetic acid. Thus, MTR appears to be a dead-end metabolite in E. coli, begging questions about how this has evolved, the mechanism of MTR export for the cell, and whether the release of MTR is important for some other activity.     

Regulation of glutamate dehydrogenases in nit-2 and am mutants of Neurospora crassa.

The regulation of the glutamate dehydrogenases was investigated in wild-type Neurospora crassa and two classes of mutants altered in the assimilation of inorganic nitrogen, as either nitrate or ammonium. In the wild-type strain, a high nutrient carbon concentration increased the activity of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-glutamate dehydrogenase and decreased the activity of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH)-glutamate dehydrogenase. A high nutrient nitrogen concentration had the opposite effect, increasing NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase and decreasing NADPH-glutamate dehydrogenase. The nit-2 mutants, defective in many nitrogen-utilizing enzymes and transport systems, exhibited low enzyme activities after growth on a high sucrose concentration: NADPH-glutamate dehydrogenase activity was reduced 4-fold on NH(4)Cl medium, and NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase, 20-fold on urea medium. Unlike the other affected enzymes of nit-2, which are present only in basal levels, the NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase activity was found to be moderately enhanced when cells were grown on a low carbon concentration. This finding suggests that the control of this enzyme in nit-2 is hypersensitive to catabolite repression. The am mutants, which lack NADPH-glutamate dehydrogenase activity, possessed basal levels of NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase activity after growth on urea or l-aspartic acid media, like the wild-type strain, and possessed moderate levels (although three- to fourfold lower than the wild-type strain) on l-asparagine medium or l-aspartic acid medium containing NH(4)Cl. These regulatory patterns are identical to those of the nit-2 mutants. Thus, the two classes of mutants exhibit a common defect in NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase regulation. Double mutants of nit-2 and am had lower NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase activities than either parent. A carbon metabolite is proposed to be the repressor of NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase in N. crassa.     

利用重组Pichia pastoris生产腺苷甲硫氨酸

为改造甲醇利用型酵母Pichia pastoris来生产腺苷甲硫氨酸（SAM,S－adenosyl-L-methionine),我们将一个带有SAM合成酶基因的胞内表达质粒转化入Pichia pastoris菌株GS115,经过G418抗性筛选得到一株有两个基因拷贝的转化子。该菌在含有甲醇和甲硫氨酸的培养基中生长5d后,其细胞内的SAM的产量比原始菌株提高了30余倍。对该菌生产SAM的培养基中的碳源与氮源进行了优化,结果显示碳源的控制对该菌SAM产量的影响很大。在试管水平,该菌在含有0．75％的L-methionine并且碳源和有机氮源经过一定程度优化的培养基中,生长6d后SAM产量达到1．58g/L。     

Nutritional Requirements for Growth and Sporulation of Clostridium perfringens

Two strains of Clostridium perfringens grew in a chemically defined medium consisting of L-tryptophan, L-arginine, L-glutamic acid, L-histidine HCl, L-leucine, DL-threonine, DL-phenylalanine, DL-tryrosine, DL-valine, L-cystine, ascorbic acid, Ca d -pantothenate, pyridoxine, biotin, adenine HCl, glucose, salts and mercaptoacetic acid. Alanine, aspartic acid and methionine were highly stimulatory but not essential for growth. Growth did not occur in the absence of glucose, but other fermentable carbohydrates were not tested. Acetone, isopropyl alcohol, succinic acid, acetic acid, butanol, butyric acid, lactic acid, pyruvic acid, oxaloacetic acid or acetaldehyde did not eliminate the requirement for glucose. Methionine was required for sporulation; one strain also required riboflavin, isoleucine, serine and lysine. Butanol increased the degree of sporulation in a complex thioglycolate medium. Failure of Cl. perfringens to sporulate in inadequately buffered media containing glucose was shown to be caused by the high H-ion concentration developing in the culture medium. In addition, some possible end-products of glucose metabolism such as lactic acid, oxaloacetic acid and acetaldehyde, reduced sporulation in one strain appreciably.