Biosynthesis of the antibiotic, grizin, by prototrophic revertants of Streptomyces griseus biochemical mutants

Spontaneous and nitrosomethylbiuret-induced prototrophic revertants of various biochemical mutants of Str. griseus producing grisin, a streptothricin antibiotic, were isolated. The antibiotic production level of the revertants was studied. It was found that most of the prototrophic revertants synthesized much higher amounts of grisin than the initial biochemical mutants. It was also shown that a number of the prototrophic revertants of the methionine- and arginine-dependent mutants synthesized 20-23% higher amounts of grisin as compared to the control.     

Effect of mutagenic factors on the variability of cultures of Actinomyces griseus--preducer of the antibiotic grisin

The study of the lethal and mutagenic effect of ethylenimine, nitrozoguanidine, nitrozomethylurea and nitrozoethylurea on Act. griseus Krainsky 15, producing grisin, an antibiotic widely used in agriculture as a stimulator of domestic animal growth showed that induction of mutants with increased antibiotic production levels was most favourable under the effect of ethylenimine. The above mutagens were highly active with respect to induction of morphological mutants. No clear correlation between the colony morphology and antibiotic production property was observed. However, it was noted that the dwarf colonies had a significantly decreased antibiotic activity.     

Action of grisin on the variability of an Acinomyces griseus culture and the use of the same antibiotic as a selection agent in the selection of active variants]

The effect of grisin on survival and variation of Actinomyces griseus producin grisin was studied. The efficiency of various concentrations of grisin on induction of variation according to the feature of the antibiotic production was compared. A possibility of increasing the productivity of strain. VNIIGenetics-115 by the use of the mutations of resistance to grisin is shown.     

Cloning of grisin resistance gene gsr and the study of its functioning in Streptomyces griseus Kr. strain

S. griseus Kr. is a commercial strain producing grisin, an antibiotic of the streptothricin group used as a feed additive. It was shown earlier that genetic instability of the strain was very high which was evident from a high frequency of nonreverting Grn- Grns mutants. With densitographic analysis of chromosomal DNA electrophoregrams and DNA-DNA hybridization it was revealed that the molecular basis of the genetic instability of the S. griseus strain was deletion of a DNA fragment about 20 kb in size containing a grisin resistance gene. The resistance gene designated as gsr was cloned to S. lividans TK 64 within the plasmid vector pIJ699. The restriction map of a cloned DNA fragment with a gsr gene was constructed and its similarity to that of a nat gene resistant to norseothricin, another streptothricin was observed. Introduction of a gsr gene within the multicopy plasmid pIJ699 into S. griseus 212, a highly productive strain synthesiing the antibiotic, led to an increase in its resistance and productivity. Proceeding from the preliminary data on possible linkage of a gsr gene and grisin biosynthesis genes, it appeared possible to use the cloned gene as a molecular probe in cloning the biosynthesis genes.     

Regulation of sinefungin biosynthesis by the wild-type strain and mutants of Streptomyces incarnatus

Sinefungin, an antifungal and antiparasitic antibiotic, is produced efficiently from ammonium citrate by prototrophic strains of Streptomyces incarnatus. The regulation of the biosynthesis of this nucleoside, composed of adenosine and ornithine, was studied by using auxotrophic mutants and a resting-cell system. Mutants blocked in arginine synthesis were not able to produce sinefungin. A uridine-negative mutant produced sinefungin in the presence of ATP, but this production was strongly inhibited when amino acids of the urea cycle were added. The same mutant produced sinefungin from aspartic acid, and this production was enhanced by ornithine. Our results show that the ornithine part of the molecule originates from arginine, liberated by either anabolic or catabolic processes.     

Regulation of sinefungin biosynthesis by the wild-type strain and mutants of Streptomyces incarnatus.

Sinefungin, an antifungal and antiparasitic antibiotic, is produced efficiently from ammonium citrate by prototrophic strains of Streptomyces incarnatus. The regulation of the biosynthesis of this nucleoside, composed of adenosine and ornithine, was studied by using auxotrophic mutants and a resting-cell system. Mutants blocked in arginine synthesis were not able to produce sinefungin. A uridine-negative mutant produced sinefungin in the presence of ATP, but this production was strongly inhibited when amino acids of the urea cycle were added. The same mutant produced sinefungin from aspartic acid, and this production was enhanced by ornithine. Our results show that the ornithine part of the molecule originates from arginine, liberated by either anabolic or catabolic processes.     

Lysine transport in two barley mutants with altered uptake of basic amino acids in the root

Amino acid uptake was examined in two barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) mutants R906 and R4402 which had been selected as resistant to the lysine analog S-(2-aminoethyl)-cysteine. The mutants were found to be allelic by crossing and examination of F₁ and F₂ progeny. The mutant genes were designated aec1a and aec1b, respectively. The uptake of the basic amino acids lysine, arginine, and ornithine from 50 micromolar solutions was strongly decreased in roots of the mutants, whereas uptake of neutral and acidic amino acids was unaffected. The pattern of uptake of lysine over the range 10⁻⁷ to 10⁻² molar was consistent with there being, principally, two uptake systems operating for basic amino acids in roots and that a low-concentration, high-affinity system is reduced or lacking in the mutants. The residual transport activity in the mutants had a different relative affinity for lysine and arginine to the wild-type system. Uptake of lysine by leaf slices was unimpaired in the mutants suggesting that the leaf uptake system is unaffected by the aec1 gene.     

Auxotrophic mutants in the selection of the rubomycin producer, Actinomyces coeruleorubidus

A total of 351 auxotrophic mutants with different antibiotic activity, including several mutants with activity higher than that of the parent prototrophic strains were obtained under the effect of gamma-rays from 3 prototrophic strains of Act. coeruleorubidus. It was shown that most of the auxotrophic mutants did not preserve the property of biochemical insufficiency on passages on complete media. A mutant strain 1059-32 with activity 2 times higher than that of the prototrophic strain 2-39 and the parent auxotrophic culture was obtained from the revertants. Requirements in 29 growth factors including 17 amino acids, 4 nitrous bases, 8 vitamins and coenzymes were determined in 46 stable auxotrophic mutants isolated. The effect of the specific and non-specific growth factors on the culture antibiotic production was studied.     

A family of basic amino acid transporters of the vacuolar membrane from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Among the members of the major facilitator superfamily of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we identified genes involved in the transport into vacuoles of the basic amino acids histidine, lysine, and arginine. ATP-dependent uptake of histidine and lysine by isolated vacuolar membrane vesicles was impaired in YMR088c, a vacuolar basic amino acid transporter 1 (VBA1)-deleted strain, whereas uptake of tyrosine or calcium was little affected. This defect in histidine and lysine uptake was complemented fully by introducing the VBA1 gene and partially by a gene encoding Vba1p fused with green fluorescent protein, which was determined to localize exclusively to the vacuolar membrane. A defect in the uptake of histidine, lysine, or arginine was also observed in the vacuolar membrane vesicles of mutants YBR293w (VBA2) and YCL069w (VBA3). These three VBA genes are closely related phylogenetically and constitute a new family of basic amino acid transporters in the yeast vacuole.     

Role of amino acid residue 90 in bioactivity and receptor binding capacity of tumor necrosis factor mutants

We have previously produced two bioactive lysine-deficient mutants of TNF-alpha (mutTNF-K90R,-K90P) and found that these mutants have bioactivity superior to wild-type TNF (wtTNF). Because these mutants contained same amino acid except for amino acid 90, it is unclear which amino acid residue is optimal for showing bioactivity. We speculated that this amino acid position was exchangeable, and this amino acid substitution enabled the creation of lysine-deficient mutants with enhanced bioactivity. Therefore, we produced mutTNF-K90R variants (mutTNF-R90X), in which R90 was replaced with other amino acids, to assay their bioactivities and investigated the importance of amino acid position 90. As a result, mutTNF-R90X that replaced R90 with lysine, arginine and proline were bioactive, while other mutants were not bioactive. Moreover, these three mutants showed bioactivity as good as or better than wtTNF. R90 replaced with lysine or arginine had especially superior binding affinities. These results suggest that the amino acid position 90 in TNF-alpha is important for TNF-alpha bioactivity and could be altered to improve its bioactivity to generate a "super-agonist".     

Salmonella typhimurium LT-2 mutants with altered glutamine synthetase levels and amino acid uptake activities.

To determine whether Salmonella typhimurium has a nitrogen control response, we have examined the regulation of nitrogen utilization in two mutants with fivefold and threefold elevations in their glutamine synthetase activities. The mutants do not require glutamine for growth on glucose--ammonia medium but do have altered growth on other nitrogen sources. They grow better than an isogenic control on media containing arginine or asparate, but more slowly with proline or alanine as nitrogen sources. This unusual growth pattern is not due to altered regulation of the ammonia assimilatory enzymes, glutamate dehydrogenase and glutamate synthase, or to changes in the enzymes for aspartate degradation. However, transport for several amino acids may be affected. Measurement of amino acid uptake show that the mutants with high glutamine synthetase levels have increased rates for glutamine, arginine, aspartate, and lysine, but a decreased rate for proline. The relationship between glutamine synthetase levels and uptake was examined in two mutants with reduced, rather than increased, glutamine synthetase production. The uptake rates for glutamine and lysine were lower in these two glutamine auxotrophs than in the Gln+ controls. These results show a correlation between the glutamine synthetase levels and the uptake rates for several amino acids. In addition, the pleiotropic growth of the mutants with elevated glutamine synthetase activities suggests that a nitrogen control response exists for S. typhimurium and that it can be altered by mutations affecting glutamine synthetase regulation.     

The transmembrane domain of influenza hemagglutinin exhibits a stringent length requirement to support the hemifusion to fusion transition

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored influenza hemagglutinin (GPI-HA) mediates hemifusion, whereas chimeras with foreign transmembrane (TM) domains mediate full fusion. A possible explanation for these observations is that the TM domain must be a critical length in order for HA to promote full fusion. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed biochemical properties and fusion phenotypes of HA with alterations in its 27-amino acid TM domain. Our mutants included sequential 2-amino acid (Delta2-Delta14) and an 11-amino acid deletion from the COOH-terminal end, deletions of 6 or 8 amino acids from the NH(2)-terminal and middle regions, and a deletion of 12 amino acids from the NH(2)-terminal end of the TM domain. We also made several point mutations in the TM domain. All of the mutants except Delta14 were expressed at the cell surface and displayed biochemical properties virtually identical to wild-type HA. All the mutants that were expressed at the cell surface promoted full fusion, with the notable exception of deletions of >10 amino acids. A mutant in which 11 amino acids were deleted was severely impaired in promoting full fusion. Mutants in which 12 amino acids were deleted (from either end) mediated only hemifusion. Hence, a TM domain of 17 amino acids is needed to efficiently promote full fusion. Addition of either the hydrophilic HA cytoplasmic tail sequence or a single arginine to Delta12 HA, the hemifusion mutant that terminates with 15 (hydrophobic) amino acids of the HA TM domain, restored full fusion activity. Our data support a model in which the TM domain must span the bilayer to promote full fusion.     

CHO cell mutants for arginyl-, asparagyl-, glutaminyl-, histidyl- and methionyl-transfer RNA synthetases: identification and initial characterization

A number of conditional lethal mutants of CHO cells that are defective in protein synthesis have been characterized with respect to their biochemical lesions. A defective aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase appears to be the basis of each mutant phenotype. In each strain, the specific activity in vitro of the synthetase cognate for one of the following amino acids was substantially reduced: arginine, asparagine, glutamine, histidine or methionine. One mutant, Arg-1, gave no detectable arginyl-tRNA synthetase activity, suggesting that it contains an altered enzyme that is unstable in vitro. Most of the mutants correspondingly exhibited impaired aminoacylation in vivo under nonpermissive conditions. However, two mutants, Arg-1 and His-1, appeared to have normal levels of acylated tRNA under the nonpermissive conditions which inhibited protein synthesis to approximately 50% and 10%, respectively. The expression of each mutant's phenotype, measured by rates of protein synthesis or growth, was a function of temperature and/or the concentration of amino acid cognate for the synthetase found to be deficient in vitro. The properties of these mutants make them applicable to diverse problems related to translation in mammalian cells.     

Control of the aspartokinase ofStreptomyces noursei and its AEC-resistant mutants

Summary Addition of L-lysine to cultures ofS. noursei enhanced the production of nourseothricin. The aspartokinase of the wild-type strain was under concerted feedback inhibition by lysine plus threonine but was stimulated by lysine alone. Threonine in the medium increased the synthesis of enzyme. 10% of the mutants resistant to AEC showed a higher specific production of the antibiotic.     

Multivalent Induction of Biodegradative Threonine Deaminase

To determine the inducer(s) of the biodegradative threonine deaminase in Escherichia coli, the effects of various amino acids on the synthesis of this enzyme were investigated. The complex medium used hitherto for the enzyme induction can be completely replaced by a synthetic medium composed of 18 natural amino acids. In this synthetic medium, the omission of each of the seven amino acids threonine, serine, aspartic acid, methionine, valine, leucine, and arginine resulted in the greatest loss of enzyme formation. These seven amino acids did not significantly influence the uptake of other amino acids into the cells. Furthermore, they did not stimulate the conversion of inactive enzyme into an active form, since they did not affect the enzyme level in cells in which protein synthesis was inhibited by chloramphenicol. Threonine, serine, aspartic acid, and methionine failed to stimulate enzyme production in cells in which messenger ribonucleic acid synthesis was arrested by rifampin, whereas valine, leucine, and arginine stimulated enzyme synthesis under the same conditions. Therefore, the first four amino acids appear to act as inducers of the biodegradative threonine deaminase in E. coli and the last three amino acids appear to be amplifiers of enzyme production. The term "multivalent induction" has been proposed for this type of induction, i.e., enzyme induction only by the simultaneous presence of several amino acids.     

Isolation and properties of several auxotrophic mutants of a highly virulent strain of the plague microbe]

2432 stable auxotrophic mutants were selected from high virulent Yersinia pestis strain 20b after treatment with nitroso guanidine. They were deficient in amino acids (arginine, aspartic acid, citrulline, glycine, glutamic acid, histidine, isoleucine, serine, leucine, lysine, ornithine, proline, tryptophan, tyrosine, valiney, pyrimidine and vitamins (riboflavin, thyamine, nicotinamide). Some mutants were two- and three-fold dependent. The leucine-, histidine-, purine-dependent mutants were isolated with the high frequency. All the mutants, like their original strain, grew in R-form; they were sensitive to diagnostic phages, had pesticine-fibrinolysin-coagulase sustem (fraction I) and were calcium-dependent. P+ cultures of auxotrophs were not virulent for laboratory animals.     

Isolation of freeze-tolerant laboratory strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae from proline-analogue-resistant mutants

Since some amino acids, polyols and sugars in cells are thought to be osmoprotectants, we expected that several amino acids might also contribute to enhancing freeze tolerance in yeast cells. In fact, proline and charged amino acids such as glutamate, arginine and lysine showed a marked cryoprotective activity nearly equivalent to that of glycerol or trehalose, both known as major cryoprotectants for Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To investigate the cryoprotective effect of proline on the freezing stress of yeast, we isolated proline-analogue-resistant mutants derived from a proline-non-utilizing strain of S. cerevisiae. When cultured in liquid minimal medium, many mutants showed a prominent increase, two- to approximately tenfold, in cell viability compared to the parent after freezing in the medium at −20 °C for 1 week. Some of the freeze-tolerant mutants were found to accumulate a higher amount of proline, as well as of glutamate and arginine which are involved in proline metabolism. It was also observed that proline-non-utilizer and the freeze-tolerant mutants were able to grow against osmotic stress. These results suggest that the increased flux in the meta-bolic pathway of specific amino acids such as proline is effective for breeding novel freeze-tolerant yeasts. Received: 6 November 1996 / Accepted: 7 December 1996     

Modification of amino acid composition of endosperm proteins from in-vitro-selected high lysine mutants in rice

Summary Endosperm protein mutants in rice may be recovered by biochemical selections with inhibitory levels of lysine and threonine. Among the phenotypes recovered from in vitro selections are lines with increased protein and percent lysine in the protein. This work was designed to identify changes in proteins of rice mutants and to further our understanding of the mechanisms of lysine plus threonine selections in rice. Among the most obvious amino acid changes in mutants was a higher lysine level in all protein solubility fractions and a decrease in tyrosine. Methionine and glutamate are reduced in some protein fractions. However, methionine is significantly higher in the mutant than the control in the glutelin fraction. Several other aspartate pathway amino acids are higher in the mutant than the unselected controls. Separation of proteins in SDS-PAGE gels showed shifts in the protein profiles in the mutants, including a decrease in the major 30 kDa low lysine globulin component, and an increase in several high-molecular-weight components, approximately 60–100 kDa. Increases in the lysine content of proteins of different solubility classes and different proteins within classes are detailed.     

EFFECTS OF EXOGENOUS AMINO ACIDS ON THE FLOWER AND FROND PRODUCTION IN DUCKWEED, LEMNA GIBBA G3

1. Twenty usual amino acids examined were shown to be dividedinto two groups with respect to their actions on the flowerformation (A) and frond multiplication (B) in a long-day duckweed,L. gibba G3. Amino acids of the first group (e.g., arginine)inhibited A without preventing B, and those of the second group(e.g., lysine) inhibited both A and B. The inhibition of flowerformation was always the greatest when amino acid was appliedat the induction period. 2. The floral inhibition by arginine applied at the inductionperiod was partially or wholly reversed by the simultaneousaddition of other amino acid (especially lysine) or by one additionallong day. The inhibitions by lysine, however, were not reversedby arginine. 3. It was discussed that the terminal step(s) of photoperiodicinduction process might depend largely on the relative in vivoconcentrations of amino acids. (Received January 28, 1964; )