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Univesity of Cape Town Genetic studies on the region downstream of the unc operon of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. by Joseph emick-Shank Oppon. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the department of Microbiology, University of Cape Town. April, 1996.

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Page 1: Town Cape of Univesity - University of Cape Town

Unives

ity of

Cap

e Tow

n

Genetic studies on the region downstream of the unc operon of

Thiobacillus ferrooxidans

by

Joseph emick-Shank Oppon

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Science in the department of Microbiology University of Cape Town

April 1996

The copyright of this thesis vests in the author No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source The thesis is to be used for private study or non-commercial research purposes only

Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author

Univers

ity of

Cap

e Tow

n

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEOOEMENTS ii

ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF TABLES iv

ABSTRACT v

Chapter 1 General Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Cosmid p8181 and its subclones 37

Chapter 3 T ferrooxidans glucosamine synthetase gene 53

Chapter 4 Tn7-like transposon of T ferrooxidans 81

Chapter 5 General Conclusions 124

Appendix 1 Media 130

Appendix 2 Buffers and Solutions 131

Appendix 3 Bacterial strains 138

Appendix 4 Standard Techniques 139

References 143

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am most grateful to my supervisor Prof Doug Rawlings for his excellent supervision

guidance and encouragement throughout the research Without him this work would not

have been accomplished I am also indebted to my colleagues in the Thiobacillus Research

Unit Ant Smith Ros Powles Cliff Dominy Shelly Deane and the rest of my colleagues

in the department who in one way or the other helped me throughout the period of study

I am grateful to all the members of the Department of Microbiology for their assistance

and support during the course of this research Special thanks to Di James Anne Marie

who is always there when you need her and Di DeVillers for her amazing concern to let it

be there when you need it

My friends Kojo Joyce Pee Chateaux Vic Bob Felix Mawanda Moses the list of

which I cannot exhaust you have not been forgotten Thank you for your encouragement

which became the pillar of my strength Last but not the least I acknowledge the financial

support from Foundation for Research and Development of CSIR and the General Mining

Corp of South Africa

iii

A Ala amp Arg Asn Asp ATCC ATP

bp

C CGSC Cys

DNA dNTP(s) DSM

EDTA

9 G-6 P GFAT GIn Glu Gly

hr His

Ile IPTG

kb kD

I LA LB Leu Lys

M Met min ml NAcG-6-P

ORF (s) oriC

ABBREVIATIONS

adenine L alanine ampicillin L-Arginine L-Asparagine L-aspartic acid American Type Culture Collection adenos triphosphate

base pair(s)

cytosine Coli Genetic Stock Centre L-cysteine

deoxyribonucleic acid deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates Deutsche Sammlungvon Mikroorganismen (The German Collection) ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid

grams Glucosamine 6-phosphate L-glutamine-D fructose 6-phosphate amidotransferases L-glutamine L-glutamic acid L glycine

hour(s) L stidine

L-isoleucine isopropyl ~-D thio-galacopyranose

kilobase pair(s) kiloDalton

litres Luria agar Luria Broth L leucine L lysine

Molar L-methionine minute(s) millilitres N-acetyl glucosamine 6 phosphate

open reading frames(s) chromosomal origin of replication

Phe pho pi Pro

RNA rpm

SDS Ser

T Thr Trp Tyr TE Tn

UV UDP-glc

Val vm vv

X-gal

L-phenylalanine phosphate inorganic phosphate

line

ribonucleic acid revolutions per minute

Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate L-serine

thymine L-threonine L-tryptophan L-tyrosine Tris-EDTA buffer Transposon

Ultra-violet Uridyldiphosphoglucosamine

L-valine volume per mass volume per volume

5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-galactoside

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 21 Source and media of iron-sulphur oxidizing bacteria used 44

Table 22 Contructs and subclones of pS1S1 45

Table 31 Contructs and subclones used to study

the complementation of Ecoli CGSC 5392 79

v

ABSTRACT

A Tn7-like element was found in a region downstream of a cosmid (p8181) isolated from a

genomic library of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 A probe made from the Tn7-like

element hybridized to restriction fragments of identical size from both cosmid p8181 and

T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA The same probe hybridized to restricted chromosomal

DNA from two other T ferrooxidans strains (ATCC 23270 and 19859) There were no positive

signals when an attempt was made to hybridize the probe to chromosomal DNA from two

Thiobacillus thiooxidans strains (ATCC 19733 and DSM504) and a Leptospirillum

ferrooxidans strain DSM 2705

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment was subcloned from p8181 downstream the T ferrooxidans

unc operon and sequenced in both directions One partial open reading frame (ORFl) and two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) were found On the basis of high homology

to previously published sequences ORFI was found to be the C-terminus of the

T ferrooxidans glmU gene encoding the enzyme GlcNAc I-P uridyltransferase (EC 17723)

The ORF2 was identified as the T ferrooxidans glmS gene encoding the amidotransferase

glucosamine synthetase (EC 26116) The third open reading frame (ORF3) was found to

have very good amino acid sequence homology to TnsA of transposon Tn7 Inverted repeats

very similar to the imperfect inverted repeat sequences of Tn7 were found upstream of ORF3

The cloned T ferrooxidans glmS gene was successfully used to complement an Ecoli glmS

mutant CGSC 5392 when placed behind a vector promoter but was otherwise not expressed

in Ecoli

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

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144

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Univers

ity of

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e Tow

n

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEOOEMENTS ii

ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF TABLES iv

ABSTRACT v

Chapter 1 General Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Cosmid p8181 and its subclones 37

Chapter 3 T ferrooxidans glucosamine synthetase gene 53

Chapter 4 Tn7-like transposon of T ferrooxidans 81

Chapter 5 General Conclusions 124

Appendix 1 Media 130

Appendix 2 Buffers and Solutions 131

Appendix 3 Bacterial strains 138

Appendix 4 Standard Techniques 139

References 143

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am most grateful to my supervisor Prof Doug Rawlings for his excellent supervision

guidance and encouragement throughout the research Without him this work would not

have been accomplished I am also indebted to my colleagues in the Thiobacillus Research

Unit Ant Smith Ros Powles Cliff Dominy Shelly Deane and the rest of my colleagues

in the department who in one way or the other helped me throughout the period of study

I am grateful to all the members of the Department of Microbiology for their assistance

and support during the course of this research Special thanks to Di James Anne Marie

who is always there when you need her and Di DeVillers for her amazing concern to let it

be there when you need it

My friends Kojo Joyce Pee Chateaux Vic Bob Felix Mawanda Moses the list of

which I cannot exhaust you have not been forgotten Thank you for your encouragement

which became the pillar of my strength Last but not the least I acknowledge the financial

support from Foundation for Research and Development of CSIR and the General Mining

Corp of South Africa

iii

A Ala amp Arg Asn Asp ATCC ATP

bp

C CGSC Cys

DNA dNTP(s) DSM

EDTA

9 G-6 P GFAT GIn Glu Gly

hr His

Ile IPTG

kb kD

I LA LB Leu Lys

M Met min ml NAcG-6-P

ORF (s) oriC

ABBREVIATIONS

adenine L alanine ampicillin L-Arginine L-Asparagine L-aspartic acid American Type Culture Collection adenos triphosphate

base pair(s)

cytosine Coli Genetic Stock Centre L-cysteine

deoxyribonucleic acid deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates Deutsche Sammlungvon Mikroorganismen (The German Collection) ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid

grams Glucosamine 6-phosphate L-glutamine-D fructose 6-phosphate amidotransferases L-glutamine L-glutamic acid L glycine

hour(s) L stidine

L-isoleucine isopropyl ~-D thio-galacopyranose

kilobase pair(s) kiloDalton

litres Luria agar Luria Broth L leucine L lysine

Molar L-methionine minute(s) millilitres N-acetyl glucosamine 6 phosphate

open reading frames(s) chromosomal origin of replication

Phe pho pi Pro

RNA rpm

SDS Ser

T Thr Trp Tyr TE Tn

UV UDP-glc

Val vm vv

X-gal

L-phenylalanine phosphate inorganic phosphate

line

ribonucleic acid revolutions per minute

Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate L-serine

thymine L-threonine L-tryptophan L-tyrosine Tris-EDTA buffer Transposon

Ultra-violet Uridyldiphosphoglucosamine

L-valine volume per mass volume per volume

5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-galactoside

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 21 Source and media of iron-sulphur oxidizing bacteria used 44

Table 22 Contructs and subclones of pS1S1 45

Table 31 Contructs and subclones used to study

the complementation of Ecoli CGSC 5392 79

v

ABSTRACT

A Tn7-like element was found in a region downstream of a cosmid (p8181) isolated from a

genomic library of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 A probe made from the Tn7-like

element hybridized to restriction fragments of identical size from both cosmid p8181 and

T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA The same probe hybridized to restricted chromosomal

DNA from two other T ferrooxidans strains (ATCC 23270 and 19859) There were no positive

signals when an attempt was made to hybridize the probe to chromosomal DNA from two

Thiobacillus thiooxidans strains (ATCC 19733 and DSM504) and a Leptospirillum

ferrooxidans strain DSM 2705

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment was subcloned from p8181 downstream the T ferrooxidans

unc operon and sequenced in both directions One partial open reading frame (ORFl) and two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) were found On the basis of high homology

to previously published sequences ORFI was found to be the C-terminus of the

T ferrooxidans glmU gene encoding the enzyme GlcNAc I-P uridyltransferase (EC 17723)

The ORF2 was identified as the T ferrooxidans glmS gene encoding the amidotransferase

glucosamine synthetase (EC 26116) The third open reading frame (ORF3) was found to

have very good amino acid sequence homology to TnsA of transposon Tn7 Inverted repeats

very similar to the imperfect inverted repeat sequences of Tn7 were found upstream of ORF3

The cloned T ferrooxidans glmS gene was successfully used to complement an Ecoli glmS

mutant CGSC 5392 when placed behind a vector promoter but was otherwise not expressed

in Ecoli

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

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144

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Page 3: Town Cape of Univesity - University of Cape Town

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEOOEMENTS ii

ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF TABLES iv

ABSTRACT v

Chapter 1 General Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Cosmid p8181 and its subclones 37

Chapter 3 T ferrooxidans glucosamine synthetase gene 53

Chapter 4 Tn7-like transposon of T ferrooxidans 81

Chapter 5 General Conclusions 124

Appendix 1 Media 130

Appendix 2 Buffers and Solutions 131

Appendix 3 Bacterial strains 138

Appendix 4 Standard Techniques 139

References 143

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am most grateful to my supervisor Prof Doug Rawlings for his excellent supervision

guidance and encouragement throughout the research Without him this work would not

have been accomplished I am also indebted to my colleagues in the Thiobacillus Research

Unit Ant Smith Ros Powles Cliff Dominy Shelly Deane and the rest of my colleagues

in the department who in one way or the other helped me throughout the period of study

I am grateful to all the members of the Department of Microbiology for their assistance

and support during the course of this research Special thanks to Di James Anne Marie

who is always there when you need her and Di DeVillers for her amazing concern to let it

be there when you need it

My friends Kojo Joyce Pee Chateaux Vic Bob Felix Mawanda Moses the list of

which I cannot exhaust you have not been forgotten Thank you for your encouragement

which became the pillar of my strength Last but not the least I acknowledge the financial

support from Foundation for Research and Development of CSIR and the General Mining

Corp of South Africa

iii

A Ala amp Arg Asn Asp ATCC ATP

bp

C CGSC Cys

DNA dNTP(s) DSM

EDTA

9 G-6 P GFAT GIn Glu Gly

hr His

Ile IPTG

kb kD

I LA LB Leu Lys

M Met min ml NAcG-6-P

ORF (s) oriC

ABBREVIATIONS

adenine L alanine ampicillin L-Arginine L-Asparagine L-aspartic acid American Type Culture Collection adenos triphosphate

base pair(s)

cytosine Coli Genetic Stock Centre L-cysteine

deoxyribonucleic acid deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates Deutsche Sammlungvon Mikroorganismen (The German Collection) ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid

grams Glucosamine 6-phosphate L-glutamine-D fructose 6-phosphate amidotransferases L-glutamine L-glutamic acid L glycine

hour(s) L stidine

L-isoleucine isopropyl ~-D thio-galacopyranose

kilobase pair(s) kiloDalton

litres Luria agar Luria Broth L leucine L lysine

Molar L-methionine minute(s) millilitres N-acetyl glucosamine 6 phosphate

open reading frames(s) chromosomal origin of replication

Phe pho pi Pro

RNA rpm

SDS Ser

T Thr Trp Tyr TE Tn

UV UDP-glc

Val vm vv

X-gal

L-phenylalanine phosphate inorganic phosphate

line

ribonucleic acid revolutions per minute

Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate L-serine

thymine L-threonine L-tryptophan L-tyrosine Tris-EDTA buffer Transposon

Ultra-violet Uridyldiphosphoglucosamine

L-valine volume per mass volume per volume

5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-galactoside

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 21 Source and media of iron-sulphur oxidizing bacteria used 44

Table 22 Contructs and subclones of pS1S1 45

Table 31 Contructs and subclones used to study

the complementation of Ecoli CGSC 5392 79

v

ABSTRACT

A Tn7-like element was found in a region downstream of a cosmid (p8181) isolated from a

genomic library of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 A probe made from the Tn7-like

element hybridized to restriction fragments of identical size from both cosmid p8181 and

T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA The same probe hybridized to restricted chromosomal

DNA from two other T ferrooxidans strains (ATCC 23270 and 19859) There were no positive

signals when an attempt was made to hybridize the probe to chromosomal DNA from two

Thiobacillus thiooxidans strains (ATCC 19733 and DSM504) and a Leptospirillum

ferrooxidans strain DSM 2705

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment was subcloned from p8181 downstream the T ferrooxidans

unc operon and sequenced in both directions One partial open reading frame (ORFl) and two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) were found On the basis of high homology

to previously published sequences ORFI was found to be the C-terminus of the

T ferrooxidans glmU gene encoding the enzyme GlcNAc I-P uridyltransferase (EC 17723)

The ORF2 was identified as the T ferrooxidans glmS gene encoding the amidotransferase

glucosamine synthetase (EC 26116) The third open reading frame (ORF3) was found to

have very good amino acid sequence homology to TnsA of transposon Tn7 Inverted repeats

very similar to the imperfect inverted repeat sequences of Tn7 were found upstream of ORF3

The cloned T ferrooxidans glmS gene was successfully used to complement an Ecoli glmS

mutant CGSC 5392 when placed behind a vector promoter but was otherwise not expressed

in Ecoli

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

REFERENCES

144

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von Meyenburg B B Jcentrgensen J Nielsen and F Hansen 1982 Promoters of the atp operon for the membrane-bound ATP synthase of Ecoli mapped by TnlO insertion mutations MoL Gen Genet 188240-248

von Meyenberg F G Hansen 1980 The origin of replication oriC the Ecoli chromosome near oriC and construction of oriC mutants ICN-UCLA Symp MoLCellBiol 191 159

Waddell S and Craig N 1989 Tn7 transposition recognition of the attTn7 Proc Natl Sci USA 863958-3962

Waddell C S and Craig N L 1988 transposition two transposition pathways directed by five Tn7-encoded genes Develop 21

J E Gay N J Saraste M and A N 1984 DNA sequence the Escherichia coli unc operon Completion of the sequence of a kilobase segment containing

oriC unc and phoS J224799-815

and Collinson 1 1994 the role the stalk in the coupling mechanism of FEBS 34639-43

Walker 1 E Gay N J and Tybulewicz V L 1986 of transposon Tn7 into the Escherichia glmS transcriptional terminator Biochem 1 243 111-1

Wanner Land McSharry 1982 Phosphate-controlled gene in Escherichia coli using Mudl-directed lacZ fusions J Mol BioI 158347-363

Weng M and Zalkin H 1987 Structural role for a region the CTP synthetase glutamide amide transfer domain J Bacteriol 1693023-3028

Wheatcroft R and S and nucleotide sequence of Rhizobiwn meliloti insertion between the transposase encoded by ISRm3 and those encoded by Staphylococcus aureus and Thiobacillus ferrooxidans IST2 J 1732530-2538

160

Whitby M C and Lloyd R 1995 Branch of three-strand recombination intennediates by RecG a possible pathway for securing middotIULl initiated by duplex DNA 1 143303-3310

Wilkens and Capaldi R A Assymmetry and changes in examined by cryoelectronmicroscopy BioI Chern Hoppe-Seyler 37543-51

and Malamy M 1974 The loss of the PhoS periplasmic protein leads to a the specificity a constitutive phosphate transport system in Escherichia coli Biochem Res Commun 60226-233

WiUsky G Rand Malamy M 1980 of two separable inorganic phosphate transport systems in Escherichia coli J BacterioL 144356-365

P J and and C F 1973 enzyme of metabolism and Stadtman R eds) pp 343-363 Academic Press New York

Winterbum P J and Phelps F 197L control of hexosamine biosynthesis by glucosamine synthetase Biochem 1 121711

Wolf-Watz H and Norquist A 1979 Deoxyribonucleic acid and outer membrane protein to outer membrane protein involves a protein J 14043-49

Wolf-Watz H and M 1979 Deoxyribonucleic acid and outer membrane strains for oriC elevated levels deoxyribonucleic acid-binding protein and

11 for specific UU6 of the oriC region to outer membrane J Bacteriol 14050-58

Wolf-Watz H 1984 Affinity of two different chromosome to the outer membrane of Ecoli J Bacteriol 157968-970

Wu C and Te Wu 197 L Isolation and characterization of a glucosamine-requiring mutant of Escherichia 12 defective in glucoamine-6-phosphate synthetase 1 Bacteriol 105455-466

Yamada M Makino Shinagawa Nakata A 1990 Regulation of the phosphate regulon of Escherichia coli properties the pooR mutants and subcellular localization of protein Mol Genet 220366-372

Yates J R and Holmes D S 1987 Two families of repeatcXl DNA sequences Thiobacillus 1 Bacteriol 169 1861-1870

Yates J R R P and D S 1988 an insertion sequence from Thiobacillus errooxidans Proc Natl 857284-7287

161

Youvan D c Elder 1 T Sandlin D E Zsebo K Alder D P Panopoulos N 1 Marrs B L and Hearst 1 E 1982 R-prime site-directed transposon Tn7 mutagenesis of the photosynthetic apparatus in Rhodopseudomonas capsulata 1 Mol BioI 162 17-41

Zalkin H and Mei B 1990 Amino terminal deletions define a glutamide transfer domain in glutamine phosphoribosylpyrophosphate ami do transferase and other purF-type amidotransferases 1 Bacteriol 1723512-3514

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Page 4: Town Cape of Univesity - University of Cape Town

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am most grateful to my supervisor Prof Doug Rawlings for his excellent supervision

guidance and encouragement throughout the research Without him this work would not

have been accomplished I am also indebted to my colleagues in the Thiobacillus Research

Unit Ant Smith Ros Powles Cliff Dominy Shelly Deane and the rest of my colleagues

in the department who in one way or the other helped me throughout the period of study

I am grateful to all the members of the Department of Microbiology for their assistance

and support during the course of this research Special thanks to Di James Anne Marie

who is always there when you need her and Di DeVillers for her amazing concern to let it

be there when you need it

My friends Kojo Joyce Pee Chateaux Vic Bob Felix Mawanda Moses the list of

which I cannot exhaust you have not been forgotten Thank you for your encouragement

which became the pillar of my strength Last but not the least I acknowledge the financial

support from Foundation for Research and Development of CSIR and the General Mining

Corp of South Africa

iii

A Ala amp Arg Asn Asp ATCC ATP

bp

C CGSC Cys

DNA dNTP(s) DSM

EDTA

9 G-6 P GFAT GIn Glu Gly

hr His

Ile IPTG

kb kD

I LA LB Leu Lys

M Met min ml NAcG-6-P

ORF (s) oriC

ABBREVIATIONS

adenine L alanine ampicillin L-Arginine L-Asparagine L-aspartic acid American Type Culture Collection adenos triphosphate

base pair(s)

cytosine Coli Genetic Stock Centre L-cysteine

deoxyribonucleic acid deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates Deutsche Sammlungvon Mikroorganismen (The German Collection) ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid

grams Glucosamine 6-phosphate L-glutamine-D fructose 6-phosphate amidotransferases L-glutamine L-glutamic acid L glycine

hour(s) L stidine

L-isoleucine isopropyl ~-D thio-galacopyranose

kilobase pair(s) kiloDalton

litres Luria agar Luria Broth L leucine L lysine

Molar L-methionine minute(s) millilitres N-acetyl glucosamine 6 phosphate

open reading frames(s) chromosomal origin of replication

Phe pho pi Pro

RNA rpm

SDS Ser

T Thr Trp Tyr TE Tn

UV UDP-glc

Val vm vv

X-gal

L-phenylalanine phosphate inorganic phosphate

line

ribonucleic acid revolutions per minute

Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate L-serine

thymine L-threonine L-tryptophan L-tyrosine Tris-EDTA buffer Transposon

Ultra-violet Uridyldiphosphoglucosamine

L-valine volume per mass volume per volume

5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-galactoside

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 21 Source and media of iron-sulphur oxidizing bacteria used 44

Table 22 Contructs and subclones of pS1S1 45

Table 31 Contructs and subclones used to study

the complementation of Ecoli CGSC 5392 79

v

ABSTRACT

A Tn7-like element was found in a region downstream of a cosmid (p8181) isolated from a

genomic library of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 A probe made from the Tn7-like

element hybridized to restriction fragments of identical size from both cosmid p8181 and

T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA The same probe hybridized to restricted chromosomal

DNA from two other T ferrooxidans strains (ATCC 23270 and 19859) There were no positive

signals when an attempt was made to hybridize the probe to chromosomal DNA from two

Thiobacillus thiooxidans strains (ATCC 19733 and DSM504) and a Leptospirillum

ferrooxidans strain DSM 2705

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment was subcloned from p8181 downstream the T ferrooxidans

unc operon and sequenced in both directions One partial open reading frame (ORFl) and two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) were found On the basis of high homology

to previously published sequences ORFI was found to be the C-terminus of the

T ferrooxidans glmU gene encoding the enzyme GlcNAc I-P uridyltransferase (EC 17723)

The ORF2 was identified as the T ferrooxidans glmS gene encoding the amidotransferase

glucosamine synthetase (EC 26116) The third open reading frame (ORF3) was found to

have very good amino acid sequence homology to TnsA of transposon Tn7 Inverted repeats

very similar to the imperfect inverted repeat sequences of Tn7 were found upstream of ORF3

The cloned T ferrooxidans glmS gene was successfully used to complement an Ecoli glmS

mutant CGSC 5392 when placed behind a vector promoter but was otherwise not expressed

in Ecoli

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

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144

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Page 5: Town Cape of Univesity - University of Cape Town

iii

A Ala amp Arg Asn Asp ATCC ATP

bp

C CGSC Cys

DNA dNTP(s) DSM

EDTA

9 G-6 P GFAT GIn Glu Gly

hr His

Ile IPTG

kb kD

I LA LB Leu Lys

M Met min ml NAcG-6-P

ORF (s) oriC

ABBREVIATIONS

adenine L alanine ampicillin L-Arginine L-Asparagine L-aspartic acid American Type Culture Collection adenos triphosphate

base pair(s)

cytosine Coli Genetic Stock Centre L-cysteine

deoxyribonucleic acid deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates Deutsche Sammlungvon Mikroorganismen (The German Collection) ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid

grams Glucosamine 6-phosphate L-glutamine-D fructose 6-phosphate amidotransferases L-glutamine L-glutamic acid L glycine

hour(s) L stidine

L-isoleucine isopropyl ~-D thio-galacopyranose

kilobase pair(s) kiloDalton

litres Luria agar Luria Broth L leucine L lysine

Molar L-methionine minute(s) millilitres N-acetyl glucosamine 6 phosphate

open reading frames(s) chromosomal origin of replication

Phe pho pi Pro

RNA rpm

SDS Ser

T Thr Trp Tyr TE Tn

UV UDP-glc

Val vm vv

X-gal

L-phenylalanine phosphate inorganic phosphate

line

ribonucleic acid revolutions per minute

Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate L-serine

thymine L-threonine L-tryptophan L-tyrosine Tris-EDTA buffer Transposon

Ultra-violet Uridyldiphosphoglucosamine

L-valine volume per mass volume per volume

5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-galactoside

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 21 Source and media of iron-sulphur oxidizing bacteria used 44

Table 22 Contructs and subclones of pS1S1 45

Table 31 Contructs and subclones used to study

the complementation of Ecoli CGSC 5392 79

v

ABSTRACT

A Tn7-like element was found in a region downstream of a cosmid (p8181) isolated from a

genomic library of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 A probe made from the Tn7-like

element hybridized to restriction fragments of identical size from both cosmid p8181 and

T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA The same probe hybridized to restricted chromosomal

DNA from two other T ferrooxidans strains (ATCC 23270 and 19859) There were no positive

signals when an attempt was made to hybridize the probe to chromosomal DNA from two

Thiobacillus thiooxidans strains (ATCC 19733 and DSM504) and a Leptospirillum

ferrooxidans strain DSM 2705

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment was subcloned from p8181 downstream the T ferrooxidans

unc operon and sequenced in both directions One partial open reading frame (ORFl) and two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) were found On the basis of high homology

to previously published sequences ORFI was found to be the C-terminus of the

T ferrooxidans glmU gene encoding the enzyme GlcNAc I-P uridyltransferase (EC 17723)

The ORF2 was identified as the T ferrooxidans glmS gene encoding the amidotransferase

glucosamine synthetase (EC 26116) The third open reading frame (ORF3) was found to

have very good amino acid sequence homology to TnsA of transposon Tn7 Inverted repeats

very similar to the imperfect inverted repeat sequences of Tn7 were found upstream of ORF3

The cloned T ferrooxidans glmS gene was successfully used to complement an Ecoli glmS

mutant CGSC 5392 when placed behind a vector promoter but was otherwise not expressed

in Ecoli

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

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144

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Page 6: Town Cape of Univesity - University of Cape Town

Phe pho pi Pro

RNA rpm

SDS Ser

T Thr Trp Tyr TE Tn

UV UDP-glc

Val vm vv

X-gal

L-phenylalanine phosphate inorganic phosphate

line

ribonucleic acid revolutions per minute

Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate L-serine

thymine L-threonine L-tryptophan L-tyrosine Tris-EDTA buffer Transposon

Ultra-violet Uridyldiphosphoglucosamine

L-valine volume per mass volume per volume

5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-galactoside

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 21 Source and media of iron-sulphur oxidizing bacteria used 44

Table 22 Contructs and subclones of pS1S1 45

Table 31 Contructs and subclones used to study

the complementation of Ecoli CGSC 5392 79

v

ABSTRACT

A Tn7-like element was found in a region downstream of a cosmid (p8181) isolated from a

genomic library of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 A probe made from the Tn7-like

element hybridized to restriction fragments of identical size from both cosmid p8181 and

T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA The same probe hybridized to restricted chromosomal

DNA from two other T ferrooxidans strains (ATCC 23270 and 19859) There were no positive

signals when an attempt was made to hybridize the probe to chromosomal DNA from two

Thiobacillus thiooxidans strains (ATCC 19733 and DSM504) and a Leptospirillum

ferrooxidans strain DSM 2705

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment was subcloned from p8181 downstream the T ferrooxidans

unc operon and sequenced in both directions One partial open reading frame (ORFl) and two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) were found On the basis of high homology

to previously published sequences ORFI was found to be the C-terminus of the

T ferrooxidans glmU gene encoding the enzyme GlcNAc I-P uridyltransferase (EC 17723)

The ORF2 was identified as the T ferrooxidans glmS gene encoding the amidotransferase

glucosamine synthetase (EC 26116) The third open reading frame (ORF3) was found to

have very good amino acid sequence homology to TnsA of transposon Tn7 Inverted repeats

very similar to the imperfect inverted repeat sequences of Tn7 were found upstream of ORF3

The cloned T ferrooxidans glmS gene was successfully used to complement an Ecoli glmS

mutant CGSC 5392 when placed behind a vector promoter but was otherwise not expressed

in Ecoli

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

REFERENCES

144

REFERENCES

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Abrahams J P Leslie A G W Lutter R and Walker 1 E 1994 Structure at 28 A resolution of FeATPase from bovine heart mitochondria Nature 370621-628

Adzumah K and Mizuuchi K 1988 Target immunity of Mu transposition reflects a differential distribution of Mu B protein Cell 53257-266

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P J and and C F 1973 enzyme of metabolism and Stadtman R eds) pp 343-363 Academic Press New York

Winterbum P J and Phelps F 197L control of hexosamine biosynthesis by glucosamine synthetase Biochem 1 121711

Wolf-Watz H and Norquist A 1979 Deoxyribonucleic acid and outer membrane protein to outer membrane protein involves a protein J 14043-49

Wolf-Watz H and M 1979 Deoxyribonucleic acid and outer membrane strains for oriC elevated levels deoxyribonucleic acid-binding protein and

11 for specific UU6 of the oriC region to outer membrane J Bacteriol 14050-58

Wolf-Watz H 1984 Affinity of two different chromosome to the outer membrane of Ecoli J Bacteriol 157968-970

Wu C and Te Wu 197 L Isolation and characterization of a glucosamine-requiring mutant of Escherichia 12 defective in glucoamine-6-phosphate synthetase 1 Bacteriol 105455-466

Yamada M Makino Shinagawa Nakata A 1990 Regulation of the phosphate regulon of Escherichia coli properties the pooR mutants and subcellular localization of protein Mol Genet 220366-372

Yates J R and Holmes D S 1987 Two families of repeatcXl DNA sequences Thiobacillus 1 Bacteriol 169 1861-1870

Yates J R R P and D S 1988 an insertion sequence from Thiobacillus errooxidans Proc Natl 857284-7287

161

Youvan D c Elder 1 T Sandlin D E Zsebo K Alder D P Panopoulos N 1 Marrs B L and Hearst 1 E 1982 R-prime site-directed transposon Tn7 mutagenesis of the photosynthetic apparatus in Rhodopseudomonas capsulata 1 Mol BioI 162 17-41

Zalkin H and Mei B 1990 Amino terminal deletions define a glutamide transfer domain in glutamine phosphoribosylpyrophosphate ami do transferase and other purF-type amidotransferases 1 Bacteriol 1723512-3514

Zalkin H and Weng M L 1987 Structural role for a conserved region III the CTP synthetase glutamide amide transfer domain 1 Bacteriol 169 (7)3023-3028

Zhang Y and Fillingame R H 1994 Essential aspartate in subunit c of FIF0 ATP synthase Effect of position 61 substitutions in helix-2 on function of Asp24 in helix-I 1 BioI Chern 2695473-5479

Page 7: Town Cape of Univesity - University of Cape Town

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 21 Source and media of iron-sulphur oxidizing bacteria used 44

Table 22 Contructs and subclones of pS1S1 45

Table 31 Contructs and subclones used to study

the complementation of Ecoli CGSC 5392 79

v

ABSTRACT

A Tn7-like element was found in a region downstream of a cosmid (p8181) isolated from a

genomic library of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 A probe made from the Tn7-like

element hybridized to restriction fragments of identical size from both cosmid p8181 and

T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA The same probe hybridized to restricted chromosomal

DNA from two other T ferrooxidans strains (ATCC 23270 and 19859) There were no positive

signals when an attempt was made to hybridize the probe to chromosomal DNA from two

Thiobacillus thiooxidans strains (ATCC 19733 and DSM504) and a Leptospirillum

ferrooxidans strain DSM 2705

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment was subcloned from p8181 downstream the T ferrooxidans

unc operon and sequenced in both directions One partial open reading frame (ORFl) and two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) were found On the basis of high homology

to previously published sequences ORFI was found to be the C-terminus of the

T ferrooxidans glmU gene encoding the enzyme GlcNAc I-P uridyltransferase (EC 17723)

The ORF2 was identified as the T ferrooxidans glmS gene encoding the amidotransferase

glucosamine synthetase (EC 26116) The third open reading frame (ORF3) was found to

have very good amino acid sequence homology to TnsA of transposon Tn7 Inverted repeats

very similar to the imperfect inverted repeat sequences of Tn7 were found upstream of ORF3

The cloned T ferrooxidans glmS gene was successfully used to complement an Ecoli glmS

mutant CGSC 5392 when placed behind a vector promoter but was otherwise not expressed

in Ecoli

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

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144

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v

ABSTRACT

A Tn7-like element was found in a region downstream of a cosmid (p8181) isolated from a

genomic library of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 A probe made from the Tn7-like

element hybridized to restriction fragments of identical size from both cosmid p8181 and

T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA The same probe hybridized to restricted chromosomal

DNA from two other T ferrooxidans strains (ATCC 23270 and 19859) There were no positive

signals when an attempt was made to hybridize the probe to chromosomal DNA from two

Thiobacillus thiooxidans strains (ATCC 19733 and DSM504) and a Leptospirillum

ferrooxidans strain DSM 2705

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment was subcloned from p8181 downstream the T ferrooxidans

unc operon and sequenced in both directions One partial open reading frame (ORFl) and two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) were found On the basis of high homology

to previously published sequences ORFI was found to be the C-terminus of the

T ferrooxidans glmU gene encoding the enzyme GlcNAc I-P uridyltransferase (EC 17723)

The ORF2 was identified as the T ferrooxidans glmS gene encoding the amidotransferase

glucosamine synthetase (EC 26116) The third open reading frame (ORF3) was found to

have very good amino acid sequence homology to TnsA of transposon Tn7 Inverted repeats

very similar to the imperfect inverted repeat sequences of Tn7 were found upstream of ORF3

The cloned T ferrooxidans glmS gene was successfully used to complement an Ecoli glmS

mutant CGSC 5392 when placed behind a vector promoter but was otherwise not expressed

in Ecoli

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

REFERENCES

144

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Tichy R Grotenhuis J T c Janssen van Houten R Rulkens and Lettinga 1993 Application of the sulphur cycle bioremediation of soils polluted with heavy metals In Int Conf Contaminated 93 ed F Arendt G J Annokee R Bosman and W J van der Brink Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht pp 1461-1462

G and Mayer An electron approach to the quaternary structure of mitochondrial Eur J Biochem 13237-45

J and Tschape streptothricin resistance transposons Tn1825 and Tn1826 and transposon Tn 7 Plasmidnuu

18246-249

Tso J Y Zalkin H van Cleemput M Yanofsky C and JM 1982 Nucleotide of Escherichia coli and deduced amino glutamine

phosphribosylpyrophosphate am idotransferase J BioI Chern

V Mesyanzhinova I V Koslov I A and Orlova 1984 Structure of studied by electron and image processing Lett 167285-289

P Barber C and transposons Tn5 and Tn7 in Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris MoL Gen 157

Ullrich J and van Putten P Identification of the Gonococcal glmU gene UVUUIJ

the enzyme N-acetylglucosamine 1-Phosphate Uridyltransferase involved in the synthesis UDP-GlcNAc J of Bact 1776902-6909

M 1992 Eight bacterial proteins includin]g UDP-N -acetylglucosamine acyltransferase three vother of Escherichia coli of a six-residue n tVI

theme FEMS MicrobioL 97249-254

van der Steen J J D Doddema J and de Uidoging van zware metalen afvalstromen met behulp van thiobacilli (Removal metals from waste streams

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Vermoote P 1988 Universite Paris VI Paris Hrllnro

159

Vignais P V Lunard Issartel J P and Dupuis A 1985 Interaction n l1f middotn

oligomycin sensitivity protein (OSCP) beef heart mitochondrial FeATPase 2 Identification of interacting Fl subunits cross-linking Biochem J

Vik S and Dao NN Prediction of transmembrane topology of Fo proteins from Ecoli ATP synthase variational hydrophobic moment analyses Biochim Biophys Acta 1140 199-207

von Meyenburg B B Jcentrgensen J Nielsen and F Hansen 1982 Promoters of the atp operon for the membrane-bound ATP synthase of Ecoli mapped by TnlO insertion mutations MoL Gen Genet 188240-248

von Meyenberg F G Hansen 1980 The origin of replication oriC the Ecoli chromosome near oriC and construction of oriC mutants ICN-UCLA Symp MoLCellBiol 191 159

Waddell S and Craig N 1989 Tn7 transposition recognition of the attTn7 Proc Natl Sci USA 863958-3962

Waddell C S and Craig N L 1988 transposition two transposition pathways directed by five Tn7-encoded genes Develop 21

J E Gay N J Saraste M and A N 1984 DNA sequence the Escherichia coli unc operon Completion of the sequence of a kilobase segment containing

oriC unc and phoS J224799-815

and Collinson 1 1994 the role the stalk in the coupling mechanism of FEBS 34639-43

Walker 1 E Gay N J and Tybulewicz V L 1986 of transposon Tn7 into the Escherichia glmS transcriptional terminator Biochem 1 243 111-1

Wanner Land McSharry 1982 Phosphate-controlled gene in Escherichia coli using Mudl-directed lacZ fusions J Mol BioI 158347-363

Weng M and Zalkin H 1987 Structural role for a region the CTP synthetase glutamide amide transfer domain J Bacteriol 1693023-3028

Wheatcroft R and S and nucleotide sequence of Rhizobiwn meliloti insertion between the transposase encoded by ISRm3 and those encoded by Staphylococcus aureus and Thiobacillus ferrooxidans IST2 J 1732530-2538

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Wolf-Watz H and Norquist A 1979 Deoxyribonucleic acid and outer membrane protein to outer membrane protein involves a protein J 14043-49

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11 for specific UU6 of the oriC region to outer membrane J Bacteriol 14050-58

Wolf-Watz H 1984 Affinity of two different chromosome to the outer membrane of Ecoli J Bacteriol 157968-970

Wu C and Te Wu 197 L Isolation and characterization of a glucosamine-requiring mutant of Escherichia 12 defective in glucoamine-6-phosphate synthetase 1 Bacteriol 105455-466

Yamada M Makino Shinagawa Nakata A 1990 Regulation of the phosphate regulon of Escherichia coli properties the pooR mutants and subcellular localization of protein Mol Genet 220366-372

Yates J R and Holmes D S 1987 Two families of repeatcXl DNA sequences Thiobacillus 1 Bacteriol 169 1861-1870

Yates J R R P and D S 1988 an insertion sequence from Thiobacillus errooxidans Proc Natl 857284-7287

161

Youvan D c Elder 1 T Sandlin D E Zsebo K Alder D P Panopoulos N 1 Marrs B L and Hearst 1 E 1982 R-prime site-directed transposon Tn7 mutagenesis of the photosynthetic apparatus in Rhodopseudomonas capsulata 1 Mol BioI 162 17-41

Zalkin H and Mei B 1990 Amino terminal deletions define a glutamide transfer domain in glutamine phosphoribosylpyrophosphate ami do transferase and other purF-type amidotransferases 1 Bacteriol 1723512-3514

Zalkin H and Weng M L 1987 Structural role for a conserved region III the CTP synthetase glutamide amide transfer domain 1 Bacteriol 169 (7)3023-3028

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Page 9: Town Cape of Univesity - University of Cape Town

Subc10ning and single strand sequencing of DNA fragments covering a region of about 7 kb

beyond the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment were carried out and the sequences searched

against the GenBank and EMBL databases Sequences homologous to the TnsBCD proteins

of Tn7 were found The TnsD-like protein of the Tn7-like element (registered as Tn5468) was

found to be shuffled truncated and rearranged Homologous sequence to the TnsE and the

antibiotic resistance markers of Tn7 were not found Instead single strand sequencing of a

further 35 kb revealed sequences which suggested the T ferrooxidans spo operon had been

encountered High amino acid sequence homology to two of the four genes of the spo operon

from Ecoli and Hinjluenzae namely spoT encoding guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) and recG encoding ATP-dependent DNA helicase RecG

(EC 361) was found This suggests that Tn5468 is incomplete and appears to terminate with

the reshuffled TnsD-like protein The orientation of the spoT and recG genes with respect to

each other was found to be different in T ferrooxidans compared to those of Ecoli and

Hinjluenzae

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

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144

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Page 10: Town Cape of Univesity - University of Cape Town

11 Bioleaching 1

112 Organism-substrate raction 1

113 Leaching reactions 2

114 Industrial applicat 3

12 Thiobacillus ferrooxidans 4

13 Region around the Ecoli unc operon 5

131 Region immediately Ie of the unc operon 5

132 The unc operon 8

1321 Fe subun 8

1322 subun 10

133 Region proximate right of the unc operon (EcoURF 1) 13

1331 Metabolic link between glmU and glmS 14

134 Glucosamine synthetase (GlmS) 15

135 The pho 18

1351 Phosphate uptake in Ecoli 18

1352 The Pst system 19

1353 Pst operon 20

1354 Modulation of Pho uptake 21

136 Transposable elements 25

1361 Transposons and Insertion sequences (IS) 27

1362 Tn7 27

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome 29

13622 The Tn7 transposition mechanism 32

137 Region downstream unc operons

of Ecoli and Tferrooxidans 35

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

Fig

la

Ib

Ie

Id

Ie

If

Ig

Ih

6

11

14

22

23

28

30

33

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

11 BIOLEACHING

The elements iron and sulphur circulate in the biosphere through specific paths from the

environment to organism and back to the environment Certain paths involve only

microorganisms and it is here that biological reactions of relevance in leaching of metals from

mineral ores occur (Sand et al 1993 Liu et aI 1993) These organisms have evolved an

unusual mode of existence and it is known that their oxidative reactions have assisted

mankind over the centuries Of major importance are the biological oxidation of iron

elemental sulphur and mineral sulphides Metals can be dissolved from insoluble minerals

directly by the metabolism of these microorganisms or indrectly by the products of their

metabolism Many metals may be leached from the corresponding sulphides and it is this

process that has been utilized in the commercial leaching operations using microorganisms

112 Or2anismSubstrate interaction

Some microorganisms are capable of direct oxidative attack on mineral sulphides Scanning

electron micrographs have revealed that numerous bacteria attach themselves to the surface

of sulphide minerals in solution when supplemented with nutrients (Benneth and Tributsch

1978) Direct observation has indicated that bacteria dissolve a sulphide surface of the crystal

by means of cell contact (Buckley and Woods 1987) Microbial cells have also been shown

to attach to metal hydroxides (Kennedy et ai 1976) Silverman (1967) concluded that at

least two roles were performed by the bacteria in the solubilization of minerals One role

involved the ferric-ferrous cycle (indirect mechanism) whereas the other involved the physical

2

contact of the microrganism with the insoluble sulfide crystals and was independent of the

the ferric-ferrous cycle Insoluble sulphide minerals can be degraded by microrganisms in the

absence of ferric iron under conditions that preclude any likely involvement of a ferrous-ferric

cycle (Lizama and Sackey 1993) Although many aspects of the direct attack by bacteria on

mineral sulphides remain unknown it is apparent that specific iron and sulphide oxidizers

must play a part (Mustin et aI 1993 Suzuki et al 1994) Microbial involvement is

influenced by the chemical nature of both the aqueous and solid crystal phases (Mustin et al

1993) The extent of surface corrosion varies from crystal to crystal and is related to the

orientation of the mineral (Benneth and Tributsch 1978 Claassen 1993)

113 Leachinamp reactions

Attachment of the leaching bacteria to surfaces of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is

followed by the following reactions

For pyrite

FeS2 + 31202 + H20 ~ FeS04 + H2S04

2FeS04 + 1202 (bacteria) ~ Fe(S04)3 + H20

FeS2 + Fe2(S04)3 ~ 3FeS04 + 2S

2S + 302 + 2H20 (bacteria) ~ 2H2S

For chalcopyrite

2CuFeS2 + 1202 + H2S04 (bacteria) ~ 2CuS04 + Fe(S04)3 + H20

CuFeS2 + 2Fe2(S04)3 ~ CuS04 + 5FeS04 + 2S

3

Although the catalytic role of bacteria in these reaction is generally accepted surface

attachment is not obligatory for the leaching of pyrite or chalcopyrite the presence of

sufficient numbers of bacteria in the solutions in juxtaposition to the reacting surface is

adequate to indirectly support the leaching process (Lungren and Silver 1980)

114 Industrial application

The ability of microorganisms to attack and dissolve mineral deposits and use certain reduced

sulphur compounds as energy sources has had a tremendous impact on their application in

industry The greatest interest in bioleaching lies in the mining industries where microbial

processes have been developed to assist in the production of copper uranium and more

recently gold from refractory ores In the latter process iron and sulphur-oxidizing

acidophilic bacteria are able to oxidize certain sulphidic ores containing encapsulated particles

of elemental gold Pyrite and arsenopyrites are the prominent minerals in the refractory

sulphidic gold deposits which are readily bio-oxidized This results in improved accessibility

of gold to complexation by leaching agents such as cyanide Bio-oxidation of gold ores may

be a less costly and less polluting alternative to other oxidative pretreatments such as roasting

and pressure oxidation (Olson 1994) In many places rich surface ore deposits have been

exhausted and therefore bioleaching presents the only option for the extraction of gold from

the lower grade ores (Olson 1994)

Aside from the mining industries there is also considerable interest in using microorganisms

for biological desulphurization of coal (Andrews et aI 1991 Karavaiko et aI 1988) This

is due to the large sulphur content of some coals which cannot be burnt unless the

unacceptable levels of sulphur are released as sulphur dioxide Recently the use of

4

bioleaching has been proposed for the decontamination of solid wastes or solids (Couillard

amp Mercier 1992 van der Steen et aI 1992 Tichy et al 1993) The most important

mesophiles involved are Thiobacillus ferrooxidans ThiobacUlus thiooxidans and

Leptospirillum ferrooxidans

12 Thiobacillus feooxidans

Much interest has been shown In Thiobaccillus ferrooxidans because of its use in the

industrial mineral processing and because of its unusual physiology It is an autotrophic

chemolithotropic gram-negative bacterium that obtains its energy by oxidising Fe2+ to Fe3+

or reduced sulphur compounds to sulphuric acid It is acidophilic (pH 25-35) and strongly

aerobic with oxygen usually acting as the final electron acceptor However under anaerobic

conditions ferric iron can replace oxygen as electron acceptor for the oxidation of elemental

sulphur (Brock and Gustafson 1976 Corbett and Ingledew 1987) At pH 2 the free energy

change of the reaction

~ H SO + 6Fe3+ + 6H+2 4

is negative l1G = -314 kJmol (Brock and Gustafson 1976) T ferrooxidans is also capable

of fixing atmospheric nitrogen as most of the strains have genes for nitrogen fixation

(Pretorius et al 1986) The bacterium is ubiquitous in the environment and may be readily

isolated from soil samples collected from the vicinity of pyritic ore deposits or

from sites of acid mine drainage that are frequently associated with coal waste or mine

dumps

5

Most isolates of T ferroxidans have remarkably modest nutritional requirements Aeration of

acidified water is sufficient to support growth at the expense of pyrite The pyrite provides

the energy source and trace elements the air provides the carbon nitrogen and acidified water

provides the growth environment However for very effective growth certain nutrients for

example ammonium sulfate (NH4)2S04 and potassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HP04) have to

be added to the medium Some of the unique features of T ferrooxidans are its inherent

resistance to high concentrations of metallic and other ions and its adaptability when faced

with adverse growth conditions (Rawlings and Woods 1991)

Since a major part of this study will concern a comparison of the genomes of T ferrooxidans

and Ecoli in the vicinity of the alp operon the position and function of the genes in this

region of the Ecoli chromosome will be reviewed

13 REGION AROUND THE ECOLI VNC OPERON

131 Reaion immediately left of the unc operon

The Escherichia coli unc operon encoding the eight subunits of A TP synthase is found near

min 83 in the 100 min linkage map close to the single origin of bidirectional DNA

replication oriC (Bachmann 1983) The region between oriC and unc is especially interesting

because of its proximity to the origin of replication (Walker et al 1984) Earlier it had been

suggested that an outer membrane protein binding at or near the origin of replication might

be encoded in this region of the chromosome or alternatively that the DNA segment to which

the outer membrane protein is thought to bind might lie between oriC and unc (Wolf-Waltz

amp Norquist 1979 Wolf-Watz and Masters 1979) The phenotypic marker het (structural gene

6

glm

S

phJ

W

(ps

tC)

UN

Cas

nA

B

F

A

D

Eco

urf

-l

phoS

oriC

gid

B

(glm

U)

(pst

S)

__________

_ I

o 8

14

18

(kb)

F

ig

la

Ec

oli

ch

rom

oso

me

in

the v

icin

ity

o

f th

e u

nc

op

ero

n

Gen

es

on

th

e

rig

ht

of

ori

C are

tra

nscri

bed

fr

om

le

ft

to ri

qh

t

7

for DNA-binding protein) has been used for this region (Wolf-Waltz amp Norquist 1979) Two

DNA segments been proposed to bind to the membrane protein one overlaps oriC

lies within unc operon (Wolf-Watz 1984)

A second phenotypic gid (glucose-inhibited division) has also associated with the

region between oriC and unc (Fig Walker et al 1984) This phenotype was designated

following construction strains carrying a deletion of oriC and part of gid and with an

insertion of transposon TnlD in asnA This oriC deletion strain can be maintained by

replication an integrated F-plasmid (Walker et at 1984) Various oriC minichromosomes

were integrated into oriC deletion strain by homologous recombination and it was

observed that jAU minichromosomes an gidA gene displayed a 30 I

higher growth rate on glucose media compared with ones in which gidA was partly or

completely absent (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) A protein 70 kDa has been

associated with gidA (von Meyenburg and Hansen 1980) Insertion of transposon TnlD in

gidA also influences expression a 25 kDa protein the gene which maps between gidA

and unc Therefore its been proposed that the 70 kDa and 25 proteins are co-transcribed

gidB has used to designate the gene for the 25 protein (von Meyenburg et al

1982)

Comparison region around oriC of Bsubtilis and P putida to Ecoli revealed that

region been conserved in the replication origin the bacterial chromosomes of both

gram-positive and eubacteria (Ogasawara and Yoshikawa 1992) Detailed

analysis of this of Ecoli and BsubtUis showed this conserved region to limited to

about nine genes covering a 10 kb fragment because of translocation and inversion event that

8

occured in Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992) This comparison also

nOJlcaltOO that translocation oriC together with gid and unc operons may have occured

during the evolution of the Ecoli chromosome (Ogasawara amp Yoshikawa 1992)

132 =-==

ATP synthase (FoPl-ATPase) a key in converting reactions couples

synthesis or hydrolysis of to the translocation of protons (H+) from across the

membrane It uses a protomotive force generated across the membrane by electron flow to

drive the synthesis of from and inorganic phosphate (Mitchell 1966) The enzyme

complex which is present in procaryotic and eukaryotic consists of a globular

domain FI an membrane domain linked by a slender stalk about 45A long

1990) sector of FoP is composed of multiple subunits in

(Fillingame 1992) eight subunits of Ecoli FIFo complex are coded by the genes

of the unc operon (Walker et al 1984)

1321 o-==~

The subunits of Fo part of the gene has molecular masses of 30276 and 8288

(Walker et ai 1984) and a stoichiometry of 1210plusmn1 (Foster Fillingame 1982

Hermolin and Fillingame 1989) respectively Analyses of deletion mutants and reconstitution

experiments with subcomplexes of all three subunits of Fo clearly demonstrated that the

presence of all the subunits is indispensable for the formation of a complex active in

proton translocation and FI V6 (Friedl et al 1983 Schneider Allendorf 1985)

9

subunit a which is a very hydrophobic protein a secondary structure with 5-8 membraneshy

spanning helices has been predicted (Fillingame 1990 Lewis et ai 1990 Bjobaek et ai

1990 Vik and Dao 1992) but convincing evidence in favour of this secondary structures is

still lacking (Birkenhager et ai 1995)

Subunit b is a hydrophilic protein anchored in the membrane by its apolar N-terminal region

Studies with proteases and subunit-b-specific antibodies revealed that the hydrophilic

antibody-binding part is exposed to the cytoplasm (Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) Selective

proteolysis of subunit b resulted in an impairment ofF I binding whereas the proton translation

remained unaffected (Hermolin et ai 1983 Perlin and Senior 1985 Steffens et ai 1987

Deckers-Hebestriet et ai 1992) These studies and analyses of cells carrying amber mutations

within the uncF gene indicated that subunit b is also necessary for correct assembly of Fo

(Steffens at ai 1987 Takeyama et ai 1988)

Subunit c exists as a hairpin-like structure with two hydrophobic membrane-spanning stretches

connected by a hydrophilic loop region which is exposed to cytoplasm (Girvin and Fillingame

1993 Fraga et ai 1994) Subunit c plays a key role in both rr

transport and the coupling of H+ transport with ATP synthesis (Fillingame 1990) Several

pieces of evidence have revealed that the conserved acidic residue within the C-terminal

hydrophobic stretch Asp61 plays an important role in proton translocation process (Miller et

ai 1990 Zhang and Fillingame 1994) The number of c units present per Fo complex has

been determined to be plusmn10 (Girvin and Fillingame 1993) However from the considerations

of the mechanism it is believed that 9 or 12 copies of subunit c are present for each Fo

10

which are arranged units of subunit c or tetramers (Schneider Altendorf

1987 Fillingame 1992) Each unit is close contact to a catalytic (l~ pair of Fl complex

(Fillingame 1992) Due to a sequence similariity of the proteolipids from FoPl

vacuolar gap junctions a number of 12 copies of subunit must be

favoured by analogy to the stoichiometry of the proteolipids in the junctions as

by electron microscopic (Finbow et 1992 Holzenburg et al 1993)

For the spatial arrangement of the subunits in complex two different models have

been DmDO~~e(t Cox et al (1986) have that the albl moiety is surrounded by a ring

of c subunits In the second model a1b2 moiety is outside c oligomer

interacting only with one this oligomeric structure (Hoppe and Sebald 1986

Schneider and Altendorf 1987 Filliingame 1992) However Birkenhager et al

(1995) using transmission electron microscopy imaging (ESI) have proved that subunits a

and b are located outside c oligomer (Hoppe and u Ja 1986

Altendorf 1987 Fillingame 1992)

1322 FI subunit

111 and

The domain is an approximate 90-100A in diameter and contains the catalytic

binding the substrates and inorganic phosphate (Abrahams et aI 1994) The

released by proton flux through Fo is relayed to the catalytic sites domain

probably by conformational changes through the (Abrahams et al 1994) About three

protons flow through the membrane per synthesized disruption of the stalk

water soluble enzyme FI-ATPase (Walker et al 1994) sector is catalytic part

11

TRILOBED VIEW

Fig lb

BILOBED VIEW

Fig lb Schematic model of Ecoli Fl derived from

projection views of unstained molecule interpreted

in the framework of the three dimensional stain

excluding outline The directions of view (arrows)

which produce the bilobed and trilobed projections

are indicated The peripheral subunits are presumed

to be the a and B subunits and the smaller density

interior to them probably consists of at least parts

of the ~ E andor ~ subunits (Gogol et al 1989)

of the there are three catalytic sites per molecule which have been localised to ~

subunit whereas the function of u vu in the a-subunits which do not exchange during

catalysis is obscure (Vignais and Lunard

According to binding exchange of ATP synthesis el al 1995) the

structures three catalytic sites are always different but each passes through a cycle of

open and tight states mechanism suggests that is an inherent

asymmetric assembly as clearly indicated by subunit stoichiometry mIcroscopy

(Boekemia et al 1986 and Wilkens et al 1994) and low resolution crystallography

(Abrahams et al 1993) The structure of variety of sources has been studied

by using both and biophysical (Amzel and Pedersen Electron

microscopy has particularly useful in the gross features of the complex

(Brink el al 1988) Molecules of F in negatively stained preparations are usually found in

one predominant which shows a UVfJVU arrangement of six lobes

presumably reoreSlentltn the three a and three ~ subunits (Akey et al 1983 et al

1983 Tsuprun et Boekemia et aI 1988)

seventh density centrally or asymmetrically located has been observed tlHgteKemla

et al 1986) Image analysis has revealed that six ___ ___ protein densities

sub nits each 90 A in size) compromise modulated periphery

(Gogol et al 1989) At is an aqueous cavity which extends nearly or entirely

through the length of a compact protein density located at one end of the

hexagonal banner and associated with one of the subunits partially

obstructs the central cavity et al 1989)

13

133 Region proximate rieht of nne operon (EeoURF-l)

DNA sequencing around the Ecoli unc operon has previously shown that the gimS (encoding

glucosamine synthetase) gene was preceded by an open reading frame of unknown function

named EcoURF-l which theoretically encodes a polypeptide of 456 amino acids with a

molecular weight of 49130 (Walker et ai 1984) The short intergenic distance between

EcoURF-l and gimS and the absence of an obvious promoter consensus sequence upstream

of gimS suggested that these genes were co-transcribed (Plumbridge et ai 1993

Walker et ai 1984) Mengin-Lecreulx et ai (1993) using a thermosensitive mutant in which

the synthesis of EcoURF-l product was impaired have established that the EcoURF-l gene

is an essential gene encoding the GlcNAc-l-P uridyltransferase activity The Nshy

acetylglucosamine-l-phosphate (GlcNAc-l-P) uridyltransferase activity (also named UDPshy

GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase) which synthesizes UDP-GlcNAc from GlcNAc-l-P and UTP

(see Fig Ie) has previously been partially purified and characterized for Bacillus

licheniformis and Staphyiococcus aureus (Anderson et ai 1993 Strominger and Smith 1959)

Mengin-Lecreulx and Heijenoort (1993) have proposed the use of gimU (for glucosamine

uridyltransferase) as the name for this Ecoli gene according to the nomenclature previously

adopted for the gimS gene encoding glucosamine-6-phosphate synthetase (Walker et ai 1984

Wu and Wu 1971)

14

Fructose-6-Phosphate

Jglucosamine synthetase (glmS) glucosamine-6-phosphate

glucosamine-l-phosphate

N-acetylglucosamine-l-P

J(EcoURF-l) ~~=glmU

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine

lipopolysaccharide peptidoglycan

lc Biosynthesis and cellular utilization of UDP-Gle Kcoli

1331 Metabolic link between fllmU and fllmS

The amino sugars D-glucosamine (GleN) and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) are essential

components of the peptidoglycan of bacterial cell walls and of lipopolysaccharide of the

outer membrane in bacteria including Ecoli (Holtje and 1985

1987) When present the environment both compounds are taken up and used cell wall

lipid A (an essential component of outer membrane lipopolysaccharide) synthesis

(Dobrogozz 1968) In the absence of sugars in the environment the bacteria must

15

synthesize glucosamine-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate and glutamine via the enzyme

glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase)

the product of glmS gene Glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcNH2-6-P) then undergoes sequential

transformations involving the product of glmU (see Fig lc) leading to the formation of UDPshy

N-acetyl glucosamine the major intermediate in the biosynthesis of all amino sugar containing

macromolecules in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Badet et aI 1988) It is tempting

to postulate that the regulation of glmU (situated at the branch point shown systematically in

Fig lc) is a site of regulation considering that most of glucosamine in the Ecoli envelope

is found in its peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide component (Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

Genes and enzymes involved in steps located downtream from UDP-GlcNAc in these different

pathways have in most cases been identified and studied in detail (Doublet et aI 1992

Doublet et al 1993 Kuhn et al 1988 Miyakawa et al 1972 Park 1987 Raetz 1987)

134 Glucosamine synthetase (gimS)

Glucosamine synthetase (2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate ketol isomerase ammo

transferase EC 53119) (formerly L-glutamine D-fructose-6-phospate amidotransferase EC

26116) transfers the amide group of glutamine to fructose-6-phosphate in an irreversible

manner (Winterburn and Phelps 1973) This enzyme is a member of glutamine amidotranshy

ferases (a family of enzymes that utilize the amide of glutamine for the biosynthesis of

serveral amino acids including arginine asparagine histidine and trytophan as well as the

amino sugar glucosamine 6-phospate) Glucosamine synthetase is one of the key enzymes

vital for the normal growth and development of cells The amino sugars are also sources of

carbon and nitrogen to the bacteria For example GlcNAc allows Ecoli to growth at rates

16

comparable to those glucose (Plumbridge et aI 1993) The alignment the 194 amino

acids of amidophosphoribosyl-transferase glucosamine synthetase coli produced

identical and 51 similar amino acids for an overall conservation 53 (Mei Zalkin

1990) Glucosamine synthetase is unique among this group that it is the only one

ansierrmg the nitrogen to a keto group the participation of a COJ[ac[Qr (Badget

et 1986)

It is a of identical 68 kDa subunits showing classical properties of amidotransferases

(Badet et aI 1 Kucharczyk et 1990) The purified enzyme is stable (could be stored

on at -20oe months) not exhibit lability does not display any

region of 300-500 nm and is colourless at a concentration 5 mgm suggesting it is not

an iron containing protein (Badet et 1986) Again no hydrolytic activity could be detected

by spectrophotometric in contrast to mammalian glucosamine

(Bates Handshumacher 1968 Winterburn and Phelps 1973) UDP-GlcNAc does not

affect Ecoli glucosamine synthetase activity as shown by Komfield (l 1) in crude extracts

from Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Badet et al 1986)

Glucosamine synthetase is subject to product inhibition at millimolar

GlcN-6-P it is not subject to allosteric regulation (Verrnoote 1 unlike the equivalent

which are allosterically inhibited by UDP-GlcNAc (Frisa et ai 1982

MacKnight et ai 1990) concentration of GlmS protein is lowered about

fold by growth on ammo sugars glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine this

regulation occurs at of et al 1993) It is also to

17

a control which causes its vrWP(1n to be VUldVU when the nagVAJlUJLlOAU

(coding involved in uptake and metabolism ofN-acetylglucosamine) regulon

nrnOPpound1are derepressed et al 1993) et al (1 have also that

anticapsin (the epoxyamino acid of the antibiotic tetaine also produced

independently Streptomyces griseopian us) inactivates the glucosamine

synthetase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Arthrobacter aurenscens Bacillus

thuringiensis

performed with other the sulfhydryl group of

the active centre plays a vital the catalysis transfer of i-amino group from

to the acceptor (Buchanan 1973) The of the

group of the product in glucosamine-6-phosphate synthesis suggests anticapsin

inactivates glutamine binding site presumably by covalent modification of cystein residue

(Chmara et ai 1984) G1cNH2-6 synthetase has also been found to exhibit strong

to pyridoxal -phosphate addition the inhibition competitive respect to

substrate fructose-6-phosphate (Golinelli-Pimpaneaux and Badet 1 ) This inhibition by

pyridoxal 5-phosphate is irreversible and is thought to from Schiff base formation with

an active residue et al 1993) the (phosphate specific

genes are found immediately rImiddot c-h-l of the therefore pst

will be the this text glmS gene

18

135 =lt==-~=

AUU on pho been on the ofRao and

(1990)

Phosphate is an integral the globular cellular me[aOc)1 it is indispensable

DNA and synthesis energy supply and membrane transport Phosphate is LAU by the

as phosphate which are reduced nor oxidized assimilation However

a wide available phosphates occur in nature cannot be by

they are first degraded into (inorganic phosphate) These phosphorylated compounds

must first cross the outer membrane (OM) they are hydrolysed to release Pi

periplasm Pi is captured by binding proteins finally nrrt~rI across mner

membrane (1M) into the cytoplasm In Ecoli two systems inorganic phosphate (Pi)

transport and Pit) have reported (Willsky and Malamy 1974 1 Sprague et aI

Rosenburg et al 1987)

transports noslonate (Pi) by the low-affinity system

When level of Pi is lower than 20 11M or when the only source of phosphate is

organic phosphate other than glycerol hmphate and phosphate another transport

is induced latter is of a inducible high-affinity transport

which are to shock include periplasmic binding proteins

(Medveczky Rosenburg 1970 Boos 1974) Another nrntpl11 an outer

PhoE with a Kn of 1 11M is induced this outer protein allows the

which are to by phosphatases in the peri plasm

Rosenburg 1970)

1352 ~~~~=

A comparison parameters shows the constant CKt) for the Pst system

(about llM) to two orders of magnitude the Pit system (about 20

llM Rosenburg 1987) makes the Pst system and hence at low Pi

concentrations is system for Pi uptake pst together with phoU gene

form an operon Id) that at about 835 min on the Ecoli chromosome Surin et al

(1987) established a definitive order in the confusing picture UUV on the genes of Pst

region and their on the Ecoli map The sequence pstB psTA

(formerly phoT) (phoW) pstS (PhoS) glmS All genes are

on the Ecoli chromosome constitute an operon The 113 of all the five

genes have been aeterrnmea acid sequences of the protein has

been deduced et The products of the Pst which have been

Vultu in pure forms are (phosphate binding protein) and PhoU (Surin et 1986

Rosenburg 1987) The Pst two functions in Ecoli the transport of the

negative regulation of the phosphate (a complex of twenty proteins mostly to

organic phosphate transport)

20

1

1 Pst and their role in uptake

PstA pstA(phoT) Cytoplasmic membrane

pstB Energy peripheral membrane

pstC(phoW) Cytoplasmic membrane protein

PiBP pstS(phoS) Periplasmic Pi proteun

1353 Pst operon

PhoS (pstS) and (phoT) were initially x as

constitutive mutants (Echols et 1961) Pst mutants were isolated either as arsenateshy

resistant (Bennet and Malamy 1970) or as organic phosphate autotrophs et al

Regardless the selection criteria all mutants were defective incorporation

Pi on a pit-background synthesized alkaline by the phoA gene

in high organic phosphate media activity of Pst system depends on presence

PiBP which a Kn of approximately 1 JlM This protein encoded by pstS gene has

been and but no resolution crystallographic data are available

The encoded by pstS 346 acids which is the precursor fonn of

phosphate binding protein (Surin et al 1984)

mature phosphate binding protein (PiBP) 1 amino acids and a molecular

of The 25 additional amino acids in the pre-phosphate binding

constitute a typical signal peptide (Michaelis and 1970) with a positively

N-tenninus followed by a chain of 20 hydrophobic amino acid residues (Surin et al 1984)

The of the signal peptide to form mature 1-111-1 binding protein lies

on the carboxyl of the alanine residue orecedlm2 glutamate of the mature

phosphate ~~ (Surin et al bull 1984) the organic phosphates

through outer Pi is cleaved off by phosphatase the periplasm and the Pi-

binding protein captures the free Pi produced in the periplasm and directs it to the

transmembrane channel of the cytoplasmic membrane UI consists of two proteins

PstA (pOOT product) and PstC (phoW product) which have and transmembrane

helices middotn cytoplasmic side of the is linked to PstB

protein which UClfOtHle (probably A TP)-binding probably provides the

energy required by to Pi

The expression of genes in 10 of the Ecoli chromosome (47xlltfi bp) is

the level of external based on the proteins detected

gel electrophoresis system Nieldhart (personal cornmumcatlon

Torriani) However Wanner and nuu (1982) could detect only

were activated by Pi starvation (phosphate-starvation-induced or Psi) This level

of expression represents a for the cell and some of these genes VI

Pho regulon (Fig Id) The proaucts of the PhD regulon are proteins of the outer

22

IN

------------shyOUT

Fig Id Utilization of organic phosphate by cells of Ecoli starved of inorganic phosphate

(Pi) The organic phosphates penneate the outer membrane (OM) and are hydrolized to Pi by

the phosphatases of the periplasm The Pi produced is captured by the (PiBP) Pi-binding

protein (gene pstS) and is actively transported through the inner membrane (IM) via the

phosphate-specific transport (Pst) system The phoU gene product may act as an effector of

the Pi starvation signal and is directly or indirectly responsible for the synthesis of

cytoplasmic polyphosphates More important for the phosphate starved cells is the fact that

phoU may direct the synthesis of positive co-factors (X) necessary for the activation of the

positive regulatory genes phoR and phoB The PhoR membrane protein will activate PhoB

The PhoB protein will recognize the Pho box a consensus sequence present in the genes of

the pho operon (Surin ec ai 1987)

23

~

Fig Ie A model for Pst-dependent modified the one used (Treptow and

Shuman 1988) to explain the mechanism of uaHv (a) The PiBP has captured Pi

( ) it adapts itself on the periplasmic domain of two trallsrrlerrUl

and PstA) The Pst protein is represented as bound to bullv I-IVgtU IS

not known It has a nucleotide binding domain (black) (b)

PiBP is releases Pi to the PstA + PstB channel (c) of

ADP + Pi is utilized to free the transported

of the original structure (a) A B and Care PstA and

24

membrane (porin PhoE) the periplasm (alkaline phosphatase Pi-binding protems glycerol

3-phosphate binding protein) and the cytoplsmic membranes (PhoR PstC pstA

U gpC) coding for these proteins are positively regulated by the products of three

phoR phoB which are themselves by Pi and phoM which is not It was

first establised genetically and then in vitro that the is required to induce alkaline

phosphatase production The most recent have established PhoB is to bind

a specific DNA upstream the of the pho the Pho-box (Nakata et ai 1987)

as has demonstrated directly for pstS gene (Makino et al 1988) Gene phoR is

regulated and with phoB constitutes an operon present knowledge of the sequence and

functions of the two genes to the conclusion that PhoR is a membrane AVIvAll

(Makino et al 1985) that fulfils a modulatory function involved in signal transduction

Furthermore the homology operon with a number two component regulatory

systems (Ronson et ai 1987) suggests that PhoR activates PhoB by phosphorylation

is now supported by the experiments of Yamada et al (1990) which proved a truncated

PhoR (C-terminal is autophosphorylated and transphosphorylates PhoB (Makino et al

1990)

It has been clearly established that the expression of the of the Pst system for Pi

rr~lnCfI repressed Any mutation in one of five genes results in the constitutive

expression the Pho regulon This that the Pst structure exerts a

on the eXl)re~l(m of the regulon levels are Thus the level

these proteins is involved in sensing Pi from the medium but the transport and flow Pi

through is not involved the repression of the Pho If cells are starved for

pst genes are expressed at high levels and the regulon is 11jlUUiU via phoR

PhoB is added to cells pst expresssion stops within five to ten minutes

probably positive regulators PhoR PhoB are rapidly inactivated

(dephosphorylated) and Pst proteins regain their Another of the Pst

phoU produces a protein involved in regulation of pho regulon the

mechanism of this function has not explained

Tn7 is reviewed uau) Tn7-like CPcrrnnt- which was encountered

downstream glmS gene

Transposons are precise DNA which can trans locate from to place in genlom

or one replicon to another within a This nrrp~lt does not involve homologous

or general recombination of the host but requires one (or a few gene products)

encoded by element In prokaryotes the study of transposable dates from

IlPT in the late 1960s of a new polar Saedler

and Starlinger 1967 Saedler et at 1968 Shapiro and Adhya 1 and from the identifishy

of these mutations as insertions et al 1 Shapiro Michealis et al

1969 a) 1970) showed that the __ ~ to only

a classes and were called sequences (IS Malamy et 1 Hirsch et at

1 and 1995) Besides presence on the chromosome these IS wereuvJllUIbull Lvl

discovered on Da(rell0rlflaees (Brachet et al 1970) on plasmids such as fertility

F (Ohtsubo and 1975 et at 1975) It vUuv clear that sequences

could only transpose as discrete units and could be integrated mechanisms essentially

26

independent of DNA sequence homology Furthennore it was appreciated that the

detenninants for antibiotic resistance found on R factors were themselves carried by

transposable elements with properties closely paralleling those of insertion sequences (Hedges

and Jacob 1974 Gottesman and Rosner 1975 Kopecko and Cohen 1975 Heffron et at

1975 Berg et at 1975)

In addition to the central phenomenon of transposition that is the appearance of a defined

length of DNA (the transposable element) in the midst of sequences where it had not

previously been detected transposable elements typically display a variety of other properties

They can fuse unrelated DNA molecules mediate the fonnation of deletions and inversions

nearby they can be excised and they can contain transcriptional start and stop signals (Galas

and Chandler 1989 Starlinger and Saedler 1977 Sekine et at 1996) They have been shown

in Psuedomonas cepacia to promote the recruitment of foreign genes creating new metabolic

pathways and to be able increase the expression of neighbouring genes (Scordilis et at 1987)

They have also been found to generate miniplasmids as well as minicircles consisting of the

entire insertion sequence and one of the flanking sequences in the parental plasmid (Sekine

et aI 1996) The frequency of transposition may in certain cases be correlated with the

environmental stress (CuIIis 1990) Prokaryotic transposable elements exhibit close functional

parallels They also share important properties at the DNA sequence level Transposable

insertion sequences in general may promote genetic and phenotypic diversity of

microorganisms and could play an important role in gene evolution (Holmes et at 1994)

Partial or complete sequence infonnation is now available for most of the known insertion

sequences and for several transposons

27

Transposons were originally distinguished from insertional sequences because transposons

carry detectable genes conferring antibiotic gt Transposons often in

long (800-1500 bp) inverted or direct repeats segments are themselves

IS or IS-like elements (Calos Miller 1980 et al 1995) Many

transposons thus represent a segment DNA that is mobile as a result of being flanked by

IS units For example Tn9 and Tni68i are u(Ucu by copies lSi which accounts for the

mobilization of the genetic material (Calos Miller 1980) It is quite probable

that the long inverted of elements such as TnS and Tn903 are also insertion

or are derived from Virtually all the insertion sequences transposons

characterized at the level have a tenninal repeat The only exception to date

is bacteriophage Mu where the situation is more complex the ends share regions of

homology but do not fonn a inverted repeat (Allet 1979 Kahmann and Kamp

1979 Radstrom et al 1994)

1362

Tn7 is relatively large about 14 kb If) It encodes several antibiotic resistance

detenninants in addition to its transposition functions a novel dihydrofolate reductase that

provides resistance to the anti-folate trimethoprim and 1983 Simonson

et aI 1983) an adenylyl trasferase that provides to the aminoglycosides

streptomycin and spectinomycin et 1985) and a transacetylase that provides

resistance to streptothricin (Sundstrom et al 1991) Tn1825 and Tn1826 are Tn7-related

transposons that apparently similar transposition functions but differ in their drug

28

Tn7RTn7L

sat 74kD 46kD 58kD 85kD 30kD

dhfr aadA 8 6 0114 I I I

kb rlglf

Fig If Tn7 Shown are the Tn7-encoded transposition ~enes tnsABCDE and the sizes

of their protein products The tns genes are all similarly oriente~ as indicated

by tha arrows Also shown are all the Tn7-encoded drug resistance genes dhfr

(trimethoprin) sat (streptothricin) and aadA (spectinomycinspectomycin)

A pseudo-integrase gene (p-int) is shown that may mediate rearrangement among drug

resistance casettes in the Tn7 family of transposons

29

resistance detenninants (Tietze et aI These drug appear to be

encoded cassettes whose rearrangement can be mediated by an element-encoded

(Ouellette and Roy 1987 Sundstrom and Skold 1990 Sundstrom et al 1991)

In Tn7 recom binase gene aVI- to interrupted by a stop codon and is therefore an

inactive pseuoogt~ne (Sundstrom et 1991) It should that the transposition

intact Tn7 does not require this (Waddell and 1988) Tn7 also encoo(~s

an array of transposition tnsABCDE (Fig If) five tns genes mediate

two overlapping recombination pathways (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and

1988 and Craig 1990)

13621 Insertion of Tn7 into Ecoli chromosome

transposons Tn7 is very site and orientation gtJu When Tn7 to

chromosome it usually inserts in a specific about 84 min of the 100 min

cnromosclme map called Datta 1976 and Brenner 1981) The

point of insertion between the phoS and

1982 Walker et al 1986) Fig 1 g In fact point of insertion in is

a that produces transcriptional tenniminator of the glmS gene while the sequence

for attTn7

11uu

(called glmS box) the carboxyl tenninal 12 amino acids

enzyme (Waddell 1989 Qadri et al 1989 Walker

et al 1986)

glucosamine

pseudo attTn7

TnsABC + promote high-frequency insertion into attTn7 low frequency

will also transpose to regions of DNA with sequence related to

of tns genes tnsABC + tnsE mediatesa different insertion into

30

Tn7L Ins ITn7R

---_---1 t

+10 +20 +30 +40 ~ +60 I I I I I I

0 I

gfmS lJ-ronclCOOH

glmS mRNA

Bo eOOH terminus of glmS gene product

om 040 oll -eo I I I I

TCAACCGTAACCGATTTTGCCAGGTTACGCGGCTGGTC -GTTGGCATTGGCTAAAACGGTCCAAfacGCCGACCAG

Region containing

nucleotides required for

attTn 7 target activity 0

Fig 19 The Ecoli attTn7 region (A) Physical map of attTn7 region The upper box is Tn7

(not to scale) showing its orientation upon insertion into attTn7 (Lichen stein and Brenner

1982) The next line is attTn7 region of the Ecoli chromosome numbered as originally

described by McKown et al (1988) The middle base pair of the 5-bp Ecoli sequence usually

duplicated upon Tn7 insertion is designated 0 sequence towards phoS (leftward) are

designated - and sequence towards gimS (rightward) are designated +

(B) Nucleotide sequence of the attTn7 region (Orle et aI 1988) The solid bar indicates the

region containing the nucleotides essential for attTn7 activity (Qadri et ai 1989)

31

low-frequency insertion into sites unrelated to auTn7 (Craig 1991) Thus tnsABC provide

functions common to all Tn7 transposition events whereas tnsD and tnsE are alternative

target site-determining genes The tnsD pathway chooses a limited number of target sites that

are highly related in nucleotide sequence whereas the tnsE-dependent target sites appear to

be unrelated in sequence to each other (or to the tnsD sites) and thus reflect an apparent

random insertion pathway (Kubo and Craig 1990)

As mentioned earlier a notable feature of Tn7 is its high frequency of insertion into auTn7

For example examination of the chromosomal DNA in cells containing plasm ids bearing Tn7

reveals that up to 10 of the attTn7 sites are occupied by Tn7 in the absence of any selection

for Tn7 insertion (Lichenstein and Brenner 1981 Hauer and Shapiro 1984) Tn7 insertion

into auTn7 has no obvious deleterious effect on Ecoli growth The frequency of Tn7

insertion into sites other than attTn7 is about 100 to WOO-fold lower than insertion into

auTn7 Non-attTn7 may result from either tnsE-mediated insertion into random sites or tnsDshy

mediated insertion into pseudo-attTn7 sites (Rogers et al 1986 Waddell and Graig 1988

Kubo and Craig 1990) The nucleotide sequences of the tns genes have been determined

(Smith and Jones 1986 Flores et al 1990 Orle and Craig 1990)

Inspection of the tns sequences has not in general been informative about the functions and

activities of the Tns proteins Perhaps the most notable sequence similarity between a Tns

protein and another protein (Flores et al 1990) is a modest one between TnsC an ATPshy

dependent DNA-binding protein that participates directly in transposition (Craig and Gamas

1992) and MalT (Richet and Raibaud 1989) which also binds ATP and DNA in its role as

a transcriptional activator of the maltose operons of Ecoli Site-specific insertion of Tn7 into

32

the chromosomes of other bacteria has been observed These orgamsms include

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Hernalsteens et ai 1980) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Caruso and

Shapiro 1982) Vibrio species (Thomson et ai 1981) Cauiobacter crescentus (Ely 1982)

Rhodopseudomonas capsuiata (Youvan et ai 1982) Rhizobium meliloti (Bolton et ai 1984)

Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris (Turner et ai 1984) and Pseudomonas fluorescens

(Barry 1986) The ability of Tn7 to insert at a specific site in the chromosomes of many

different bacteria probably reflects the conservation of gimS in prokaryotes (Qadri et ai

1989)

13622 The Tn 7 transposition mechanism

The developement of a cell-free system for Tn7 transposition to attTn7 (Bainton et at 1991)

has provided a molecular view of this recombination reaction (Craig 1991) Tn7 moves in

vitro in an intermolecular reaction from a donor DNA to an attTn7 target in a non-replicative

reaction that is Tn7 is not copied by DNA replication during transposition (Craig 1991)

Examination ofTn7 transposition to attTn7 in vivo supports the view that this reaction is nonshy

replicative (Orle et ai 1991) The DNA breaking and joining reactions that underlie Tn7

transposition are distinctive (Bainton et at 1991) but are related to those used by other

mobile DNAs (Craig 1991) Prior to the target insertion in vitro Tn7 is completely

discolU1ected from the donor backbone by double-strand breaks at the transposon termini

forming an excised transposon which is a recombination intermediate (Fig 1 h Craig 1991)

It is notable that no breaks in the donor molecule are observed in the absence of attTn7 thus

the transposon excision is provoked by recognition of attTn7 (Craig 1991) The failure to

observe recombination intermediates or products in the absence of attTn7 suggests the

33

transposon ends flanked by donor DNA and the target DNA containing attTn7 are associated

prior to the initiation of the recombination by strand cleavage (Graig 1991) As neither

DONOR DONOR BACKBONE

SIMPLE INSERTION TARGET

Fig 1h The Tn7 transposition pathway Shown are a donor molecule

containing Tn7 and a target molecule containing attTn7 Translocation of Tn7

from a donor to a target proceeds via excison of the transposon from the

donor backbone via double-strand breaks and its subsequent insertion into a

specific position in attTn7 to form a simple transposition product (Craig

1991)

34

recombination intermediates nor products are observed in the absence of any single

recombination protein or in the absence of attTn7 it is believed that the substrate DNAs

assemble into a nucleoprotein complex with the multiple transposition proteins in which

recombination occurs in a highly concerted fashion (Bainton et al 1991) The hypothesis that

recognition of attTn7 provokes the initiation ofTn7 transposition is also supported by in vivo

studies (Craig 1995)

A novel aspect of Tn7 transposition is that this reaction involves staggered DNA breaks both

at the transposition termini and the target site (Fig Ih Bainton et al 1991) Staggered breaks

at the transposon ends clearly expose the precise 3 transposon termini but leave several

nucleotides (at least three) of donor backbone sequences attached to each 5 transposon end

(Craig 1991) The 3 transposon strands are then joined to 5 target ends that have been

exposed by double-strand break that generates 5 overlapping ends 5 bp in length (Craig

1991) Repair of these gaps presumably by the host repair machinery converts these gaps to

duplex DNA and removes the donor nucleotides attached to the 5 transposition strands

(Craig 1991) The polarity of Tn7 transposition (that the 3 transposition ends join covalently

to the 5 target ends) is the same as that used by the bacterial elements bacteriophage Mu

(Mizuuchi 1984) and Tn 0 (Benjamin and Kleckner 1989) by retroviruses (Fujiwara and

Mizuuchi 1988) and the yeast Ty retrotransposon (Eichinger and Boeke 1990)

One especially intriguing feature of Tn7 transposition is that it displays the phenomenon of

target immunity that is the presence of a copy of Tn7 in a target DNA specifically reduces

the frequency of insertion of a second copy of the transposon into the target DNA (Hauer and

1

35

Shapiro 1 Arciszewska et

IS a phenomenon

is unaffected and

in which it

and bacteriophage Mu

Tn7 effect is

It should be that the

is transposition into other than that

immunity reflects influence of the

1991) The transposon Tn3

Mizuuchi 1988) also display

over relatively (gt100 kb)

immunity

the

on the

et al 1983)

immunity

(Hauer and

1984 Arciszewska et ai 1989)

Region downstream of Eeoli and Tferrooxidans ne operons

While examining the downstream region T ferrooxidans 33020 it was

y~rt that the occur in the same as Ecoli that is

lsPoscm (Rawlings unpublished information) The alp gene cluster from Tferrooxidans

been used to 1J-UVAn Ecoli unc mutants for growth on minimal media plus

succinate (Brown et 1994) The second reading frame in between the two

ion resistance (merRl and merR2) in Tferrooxidans E-15 has

found to have high homology with of transposon 7 (Kusano et ai 1

Tn7 was aLlu as part a R-plasmid which had spread rapidly

through the populations enteric nfY as a consequence use of

(Barth et ai 1976) it was not expected to be present in an autotrophic chemolitroph

itself raises the question of how transposon is to

of whether this Tn7-1ikewhat marker is also the

of bacteria which transposon is other strains of T ferroxidans and

in its environment

36

The objectives of this r t were 1) to detennine whether the downstream of the

cloned atp genes is natural unrearranged T ferrooxidans DNA 2) to detennine whether a

Tn7-like transposon is c in other strains of as well as metabolically

related species like Leptospirillwn ferrooxidans and v thioxidans 3) to clone

various pieces of DNA downstream of the Tn7-1ike transposon and out single strand

sequencing to out how much of Tn7-like transposon is present in T ferrooxidans

ATCC 33020 4) to whether the antibiotic markers of Trp SttlSpr and

streptothricin are present on Tn7 are also in the Tn7-like transposon 5) whether

in T ferrooxidans region is followed by the pho genes as is the case

6) to 111 lt1 the glmS gene and test it will be able to complement an

Ecoli gmS mutant

CHAPTER 2

1 Summary 38

Introduction 38

4023 Materials and Methods

231 Bacterial strains and plasm ids 40

40232 Media

41Chromosomal DNA

234 Restriction digest

41235 v gel electrophoresis

Preparation of probe 42

Southern Hybridization 42

238 Hybridization

43239 detection

24 Results and discussion 48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T errooxidans cosmid p8I8I 48

242 Hybridization of p8I to various restriction fragments of cosmid p8I81 and T jerrooxidans 48

243 Hybridization p8I852 to chromosomal DNA of T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans and Ljerrooxidans 50

21 Restriction map of cos mid p8181 and subclones 46

22 Restriction map of p81820 and 47

Fig Restriction and hybrization results of p8I852 to cosmid p818l and T errooxidans chromosomal DNA 49

24 Restriction digest results of hybridization 1852 to T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans Ljerrooxidans 51

38

CHAPTER TWO

MAPPING AND SUBCLONING OF A 45 KB TFERROOXIDANSCOSMID (p8I8t)

21 SUMMARY

Cosmid p8181 thought to extend approximately 35 kb downstream of T ferrooxidans atp

operon was physically mapped Southern hybridization was then used to show that p8181 was

unrearranged DNA that originated from the Tferrooxidans chromosome Subc10ne p81852

which contained an insert which fell entirely within the Tn7-like element (Chapter 4) was

used to make probe to show that a Tn7-like element is present in three Tferrooxidans strains

but not in two T thiooxidans strains or the Lferrooxidans type strain

22 Introduction

Cosmid p8181 a 45 kb fragment of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020 chromosome cloned into

pHC79 vector had previously been isolated by its ability to complement Ecoli atp FI mutants

(Brown et al 1994) but had not been studied further Two other plasmids pTfatpl and

pTfatp2 from Tferrooxidans chromosome were also able to complement E coli unc F I

mutants Of these two pTfatpl complemented only two unc FI mutants (AN818I3- and

AN802E-) whereas pTfatp2 complemented all four Ecoli FI mutants tested (Brown et al

1994) Computer analysis of the primary sequence data ofpTfatp2 which has been completely

sequenced revealed the presence of five open reading frames (ORFs) homologous to all the

F I subunits as well as an unidentified reading frame (URF) of 42 amino acids with

39

50 and 63 sequence homology to URF downstream of Ecoli unc (Walker et al 1984)

and Vibrio alginolyticus (Krumholz et aI 1989 Brown et al 1994)

This chapter reports on the mapping of cosmid p8181 and an investigation to determine

whether the cosmid p8181 is natural and unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosomal DNA

Furthennore it reports on a study carried out to detennine whether the Tn7-like element was

found in other T ferrooxidans strains as well as Tthiooxidans and Lferrooxidans

40

23 Materials and Methods

Details of solutions and buffers can be found in Appendix 2

231 Bacterial strains and plasmids

T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 ATCC 19859 and ATCC 23270 Tthiooxidans strains

ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 Lferrooxidans strains DSM 2705 as well as cosmid p8181

plasm ids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were provided by Prof Douglas Rawlings The medium in

which they were grown before chromosomal DNA extraction and the geographical location

of the original deposit of the bacteria is shown in Table 21 Ecoli JM105 was used as the

recipient in cloning experiments and pBluescript SK or pBluescript KSII (Stratagene San

Diego USA) as the cloning vectors

232 Media

Iron and tetrathionate medium was made from mineral salts solution (gil) (NH4)2S04 30

KCI 01 K2HP04 05 and Ca(N03)2 001 adjusted to pH 25 with H2S04 and autoclaved

Trace elements solution (mgll) FeCI36H20 110 CuS045H20 05 HB03 20

N~Mo042H20 08 CoCI26H20 06 and ZnS047H20 were filter sterilized Trace elements

(1 ml) solution was added to 100 ml mineral salts solution and to this was added either 50

mM K2S40 6 or 100 mM FeS04 and pH adjusted such that the final pH was 25 in the case

of the tetrathionate medium and 16 in the case of iron medium

41

Chromosomal DNA preparation

Cells (101) were harvested by centrifugation Washed three times in water adjusted to pH 18

H2S04 resuspended 500 ~I buffer (PH 76) (15 ~l a 20 solution)

and proteinase (3 ~l mgl) were added mixed allowed to incubate at 37degC until

cells had lysed solution cleared Proteins and other were removed by

3 a 25241 solution phenolchloroformisoamyl alcohol The was

precipitated ethanol washed in 70 ethanol and resuspended TE (pH 80)

Restriction with their buffers were obtained commercially and were used in

accordance with the YIJ~L~-AY of the manufacturers Plasmid p8I852 ~g) was restricted

KpnI and SalI restriction pn7urn in a total of 50 ~L ChJrOIT10

DNAs Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 and cosmid p8I81 were

BamHI HindIII and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 Tferrooxidans strains ATCC

33020 ATCC 19859 and together with Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and

DSM 504 were all digested BglIL Chromosomal DNA (10 ~g) and 181 ~g) were

80 ~l respectively in each case standard

compiled by Maniatis et al (1982) were followed in restriction digests

01 (08) in Tris borate buffer (TBE) pH 80 with 1 ~l of ethidium bromide (10 mgml)

100 ml was used to the DNAs p8181 1852 as a

control) The was run for 6 hours at 100 V Half the probe (p8I852) was run

42

separately on a 06 low melting point agarose electro-eluted and resuspended in 50 Jll of

H20

236 Preparation of probe

Labelling of probes hybridization and detection were done with the digoxygenin-dUTP nonshy

radioactive DNA labelling and detection kit (Boehringer Mannheim) DNA (probe) was

denatured by boiling for 10 mins and then snap-cooled in a beaker of ice and ethanol

Hexanucleotide primer mix (2 All of lOX) 2 All of lOX dNTPs labelling mix 5 Jll of water

and 1 All Klenow enzyme were added and incubated at 37 DC for 1 hr The reaction was

stopped with 2 All of 02 M EDTA The DNA was then precipitated with 25 41 of 4 M LiCl

and 75 4l of ethanol after it had been held at -20 DC for 5 mins Finally it was washed with

ethanol (70) and resuspended in 50 41 of H20

237 Southern hybridization

The agarose gel with the embedded fractionated DNA was denatured by washing in two

volumes of 025 M HCl (fresh preparation) for approximately 15 mins at room temp (until

stop buffer turned yellow) followed by rinsing with tap water DNA in the gel was denatured

using two volumes of 04 N NaOH for 10 mins until stop buffer turned blue again and

capillary blotted overnight onto HyBond N+ membrane (Amersham) according to method of

Sam brook et al (1989) The membrane was removed the next day air-dried and used for preshy

hybridization

238 Hybridization

The blotted N+ was pre-hybridized in 50 of pre hybridization fluid

2) for 6 hrs at a covered box This was by another hybridization

fluid (same as to which the probe (boiled 10 mins and snap-cooled) had

added at according to method of and Hodgness (1

hybridization was lthrI incubating it in 100 ml wash A

(Appendix 2) 10 at room ten1Peratl was at degC

100 ml of wash buffer B (Appendix 2) for 15

239 l~~Qh

All were out at room The membrane

238 was washed in kit wash buffer 5 mins equilibrated in 50 ml of buffer

2 for 30 mins and incubated buffer for 30 mins It was then washed

twice (15 each) in 100 ml wash which the wash was and

10 mins with a mixture of III of Lumigen (AMPDD) buffer The

was drained the membrane in bag (Saran Wrap) incubated at 37degC

15 exposmg to a film (AGFA cuprix RP4) room for 4 hours

44

21 Is of bacteria s study

Bacteri Strain Medium Source

ATCC 22370 USA KHalberg

ATCC 19859 Canada ATCC

ATCC 33020 ATCCJapan

ATCC 19377 Libya K

DSM 504 USA K

Lferrooxidans

DSM 2705 a P s

45

e 22 Constructs and lones of p8181

p81820 I 110

p8181 340

p81830 BamBI 27

p81841 I-KpnI 08

p81838 SalI-HindIII 10

p81840 ndIII II 34

p81852 I SalI 1 7

p81850 KpnI- II 26

All se subclones and constructs were cloned o

script KSII

46

pS181

iii

i i1 i

~ ~~ a r~ middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotlaquo 1i ii

p81820~ [ j [ I II ~middotmiddotmiddotmiddotmiddotl r1 I

~ 2 4 8 8 10 lib

pTlalp1

pTfatp2

lilndlll IIlodlll I I pSISUIE

I I21Ec9RI 10 30 kRI

Fig 21 Restriction map of cosmid p8I81 Also shown are the subclones pS1S20 (ApaI-

EcoRI) and pSlSlilE (EcoRI-EcoRI) as well as plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 which

complemented Ecoli unc F1 mutants (Brown et al 1994) Apart from pSlS1 which was

cloned into pHC79 all the other fragments were cloned into vector Bluescript KS

47

p8181

kb 820

awl I IIladlll

IIladlll bull 8g1l

p81

p81840

p8l

p81838

p8184i

p8i850

Fig Subclones made from p8I including p8I the KpnI-Safl fragment used to

the probe All the u-bullbullv were cloned into vector KS

48

241 Restriction mapping and subcloning of T(eooxidans cosmid p8181

T jerrooxidans cosmid p818l subclones their cloning sites and their sizes are given in Table

Restriction endonuclease mapping of the constructs carried out and the resulting plasmid

maps are given in 21 22 In case of pSISl were too many

restriction endonuclease sites so this construct was mapped for relatively few enzymes The

most commonly occurring recognition were for the and BglII restriction enzymes

Cosmid 181 contained two EcoRl sites which enabled it to be subcloned as two

namely pSI820 (covering an ApaI-EcoRI sites -approx 11 kb) and p8181 being the

EcoRI-EcoRl (approx kb) adjacent to pSlS20 (Fig 21) 11 kb ApaI-EcoRl

pSIS1 construct was further subcloned to plasm ids IS30 IS40 pSlS50

pS183S p81841 and p81 (Fig Some of subclones were extensively mapped

although not all sites are shown in 22 exact positions of the ends of

T jerrooxidans plasmids pTfatpl and pTfatp2 on the cosmid p8I81 were identified

21)

Tfeooxidans

that the cosmid was

unrearranged DNA digests of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxidans chromosomal DNA were

with pSI The of the bands gave a positive hybridization signal were

identical each of the three different restriction enzyme digests of p8I8l and chromosomal

In order to confirm of pSI81 and to

49

kb kb ~

(A)

11g 50Sts5

middot 2S4

17 bull tU (probe)

- tosect 0S1

(e)

kb

+- 10 kb

- 46 kb

28---+ 26-+

17---

Fig 23 Hybrdization of cosmid pSISI and T jerrooxitians (A TCC 33020) chromosomal

DNA by the KpnI-SalI fragment of pSIS52 (probe) (a) Autoradiographic image of the

restriction digests Lane x contains the probe lane 13 and 5 contain pSISI restricted with BamHl HindIII and Bgffi respectively Lanes 2 4 and 6 contain T errooxitians chromosomal DNA also restricted with same enzymes in similar order (b) The sizes of restricted pSISI

and T jerrooxitians chromosome hybridized by the probe The lanes correspond to those in Fig 23a A DNA digested with Pst served as the molecular weight nlUkermiddot

50

DNA (Fig BamHI digests SHklC at 26 and 2S kb 1 2) HindIII

at 10 kb 3 and 4) and BgnI at 46 (lanes 5 and 6) The signals in

the 181 was because the purified KpnI-San probe from p81 had a small quantity

ofcontaminating vector DNA which has regions ofhomology to the cosmid

vector The observation that the band sizes of hybridizing

for both pS181 and the T ferrooxidans ATCC 33020 same

digest that the region from BgnI site at to HindIII site at 16

kb on -VJjUIU 1 represents unrearranged chromosomal DNA from T ferrooxidans

ATCC there were no hybridization signals in to those predicted

the map with the 2 4 and 6 one can that are no

multiple copies of the probe (a Tn7-like segment) in chromosome of

and Lferrooxidans

of plasmid pSI was found to fall entirely within a Tn7-like trallSDOS()n nrpn

on chromosome 33020 4) A Southern hybridizationUUAcpoundUU

was out to determine whether Tn7-like element is on other

ofT ferrooxidans of T and Lferrooxidans results of this

experiment are shown 24 Lanes D E and F 24 represent strains

19377 DSM and Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 digested to

with BgnI enzyme A hybridization was obtained for

the three strains (lane A) ATCC 19859 (lane B) and UUHUltn

51

(A) AAB CD E F kb

140

115 shy

284 -244 = 199 -

_ I

116 -109 -

08

os -

(8)) A B c o E F

46 kb -----

Fig 24 (a) Autoradiographic image of chromosomal DNA of T ferrooxidans strains ATCC 33020 19859 23270 (lanes A B C) Tthiooxidans strains ATCC 19377 and DSM 504 (D and E) and Lferrooxidans strain DSM 2705 (lane F) all restricted with Bgffi A Pst molecular weight marker was used for sizing (b) Hybridization of the 17 kb KpnI-San piece of p81852 (probe) to the chromosomal DNA of the organisms mentioned 1 Fig 24a The lanes in Fig 24a correspond to those in Fig 24b

(lane C) uuvu (Fig 24) The same size BgllI fragments (46 kb) were

lanes A Band C This result

different countries and grown on two different

they Tn7-like transposon in apparently the same location

no hybridization signal was obtained for T thiooxidans

1 504 or Lferrooxidans DSM 2705 (lanes D E and F of

T thiooxidans have been found to be very closely related based on 1

rRNA et 1992) Since all Tferrooxidans and no Tthiooxidans

~~AA~~ have it implies either T ferrooxidans and

diverged before Tn7-like transposon or Tthiooxidans does not have

an attTn7 attachment the Tn7-like element Though strains

T ferrooxidans were 10catH)uS as apart as the USA and Japan

it is difficult to estimate acquired the Tn7-like transposon as

bacteria get around the world are horizontally transmitted It

remains to be is a general property

of all Lferrooxidans T ferrooxidans strains

harbour this Tn7-like element their

CHAPTER 3

5431 Summary

54Introduction

56Materials and methods

56L Bacterial and plasmid vectors

Media and solutions

56333 DNA

57334 gel electrophoresis

Competent preparation

57336 Transformation of DNA into

58337 Recombinant DNA techniques

58ExonucleaseIII shortening

339 DNA sequencing

633310 Complementation studies

64Results discussion

1 DNA analysis

64Analysis of ORF-l

72343 Glucosamine gene

77344 Complementation of by T ferrooxidans glmS

57cosmid pSIS1 pSlS20

58Plasmidmap of p81816r

Fig Plasmidmap of lS16f

60Fig 34 Restriction digest p81S1Sr and pSIS16f with

63DNA kb BamHI-BamHI

Fig Codon and bias plot of the DNA sequence of pSlS16

Fig 37 Alignment of C-terminal sequences of and Bsubtilis

38 Alignment of amino sequences organisms with high

homology to that of T ferrooxidans 71

Fig Phylogenetic relationship organisms high glmS

sequence homology to Tferrooxidans

31 Summary

A 35 kb BamHI-BamHI p81820 was cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 to

produce constructs p818 and p81816r respectively This was completely

sequenced both rrelct1()ns and shown to cover the entire gmS (184 kb) Fig 31

and 34 The derived sequence of the T jerrooxidans synthetase was

compared to similar nrvnC ~ other organisms and found to have high sequence

homology was to the glucosamine the best studied

eubacterium EcoU Both constructs p81816f p81 the entire

glmS gene of T jerrooxidans also complemented an Ecoli glmS mutant for growth on medium

lacking N-acetyl glucosamine

32 =-====

Cell wall is vital to every microorganism In most procaryotes this process starts

with amino which are made from rructClsemiddotmiddotn-[)ll()S by the transfer of amide group

to a hexose sugar to form an This reaction is by

glucosamine synthetase the product of the gmS part of the catalysis

to the 40-residue N-terminal glutamine-binding domain (Denisot et al 1991)

participation of Cys 1 to generate a glutamyl thiol ester and nascent ammonia (Buchanan

368-residue C-terminal domain is responsible for the second part of the ClUUU

glucosamine 6-phosphate This been shown to require the ltgtttrltgtt1iltn

of Clpro-R hydrogen of a putative rrulctoseam 6-phosphate to fonn a cis-enolamine

intennediate which upon reprotonation to the gives rise to the product (Golinelli-

Pimpaneau et al 1989)

bacterial enzyme mn two can be separated by limited chymotryptic

proteolysis (Denisot et 199 binding domain encompassing residues 1 to

240 has the same capacity to hydrolyse (and the corresponding p-nitroanilide

derivative) into glutamate as amino acid porI11

binding domain is highly cOllserveu among members of the F-type

ases Enzymes in this include amidophosphophoribosyl et al

1982) asparagine synthetase (Andrulis et al 1987) glucosamine-6-P synmellase (Walker et

aI 1984) and the NodM protein of Rhizobium leguminosarum (Surin and 1988) The

368-residue carboxyl-tenninal domain retains the ability to bind fructose-6-phosphate

The complete DNA sequence of T ferrooxidans glmS a third of the

glmU gene (preceding glmS) sequences downstream of glmS are reported in this

chapter This contains a comparison of the VVA r glmS gene

product to other amidophosphoribosy1 a study

of T ferrooxidans gmS in Ecoli gmS mutant

331 a~LSeIlWlpound~i

Ecoli strain JMI09 (endAl gyrA96 thi hsdRl7(r-k relAl supE44 lac-proAB)

proAB lacIqZ Ml was used for transfonnation glmS mutant LLIUf-_ was used

for the complementation studies Details of phenotypes are listed in Plasmid

vectors pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 (Boehringer-Mannheim) were used for cloning of the

constructs

332 Media and Solutions

Luria and Luria Broth media and Luria Broth supplemented with N-acetyl

glucosamine (200 Jtgml) were used throughout in this chapter Luria agar + ampicillin (100

Jtgml) was used to select exonuclease III shortened clones whilst Luria + X -gal (50 ttl

of + ttl PTG per 20 ml of was used to select for constructs (bluewhite

Appendix 1 X-gal and preparationselection) Details of media can be

details can be found in Appendix 2

Plasmid DNA extraction

DNA extractions were rgtMrl out using the Nucleobond kit according to the

TnPTnrVl developed by for routine separation of nucleic acid details in

of plasmid4 DNA was usually 1 00 Atl of TE bufferIJ-u

et al (1989)

Miniprepped DNA pellets were usually dissolved in 20 A(l of buffer and 2 A(l

were carried according to protocol compiled

used in a total 20endonuclease l

Agarose (08) were to check all restriction endonuclease reactions DNA

fragments which were ligated into plasmid vector _ point agarose (06) were

used to separate the DNA agnnents of interest

Competent cell preparation

Ecoli JMI09 5392 competent were prepared by inoculating single

into 5 ml LB and vigorously at for hours starter cultures

were then inoculated into 100 ml prewarmed and shaken at 37 until respective

s reached 035 units culture was separately transferred into a 2 x ml capped

tubes on for 15 mins and centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 5 mins at 4

were ruscruraea and cells were by gentle in 105 ml

at -70

cold TFB-l (Appendix After 90 mins on cells were again 1tT11 at 2500 rpm for

5 mins at 4degC Supernatant was again discarded and the cells resuspended gently in 9 ml iceshy

TFB-2 The cell was then aliquoted (200 ttl) into

microfuge tubes

336 Transformation of DNA into cells

JM109 A 5392 cells (200 l() aliquots) were from -70degC and put on

until cells thawed DNA diluted in TE from shortening or ligation

reactions were the competent suspension on ice for 15 This

15 was followed by 5 minutes heat shock (37degC) and replacement on the

was added (10 ml per tube) and incubated for 45 mins

Recombinant DNA techniques

as described by Sambrook et al (1989) were followed Plasmid constructs

and p81816r were made by ligating the kb BamHI sites in

plates minishypUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively Constructs were on

prepared and digested with various restriction c to that correct construct

had been obtained

338 Exonuclease III shortenings

ApaI restriction digestion was used to protect both vectors (pUCBM20 pUCBM21) MluI

restriction digestion provided the ~A~ Exonuclease

III shortening was done the protocol (1984) see Appendix 4 DNA (8shy

10 Ilg) was used in shortening reactions 1 Ilg DNA was restricted for

cloning in each case

339 =~===_

Ordered vgtvuu 1816r (from exonuclease III shortenings) were as

templates for Nucleotide sequence determination was by the dideoxy-chain

termination 1977) using a Sequitherm reaction kit

Technologies) and Sequencer (Pharmacia Biotech) DNA

data were by Group Inc software IJUF~

29 p8181

45 kb

2 8 10

p81820

kb

rHIampijH_fgJi___em_IISaU__ (pUCBM20) p81816f

8amHI amll IlgJJI SILl ~HI

I I 1[1 (pUCBM21) p81816r

1 Map of cosmid p8I8I construct p8IS20 where pS1820 maps unto

pSI8I Below p8IS20 are constructs p81SI6f and p8I8 the kb

of p81820 cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 respectively

60

ul lt 8amHI

LJshylacz

818-16

EcORl BamHl

Sma I Pst

BglII

6225 HindIII

EcoRV PstI

6000 Sal

Jcn=rUA~ Apa I

5000

PstI

some of the commonly used

vector while MluI acted

part of the glmU

vector is 1

3000

32 Plasmidmap of p81816r showing

restriction enzyme sites ApaI restriction

as the susceptible site Also shown is

complete glmS gene and

5000

6225

Pst Ip818-16 622 BglII

I

II EeaRV

ApaI Hl BamHI

Pst I

Fig 33 Plasmid map of p81816f showing the cloning orientation of the commonly used

restriction sites of the pUCBM20 vector ApaI restriction site was used to protect the

vector while MluI as the suscePtible site Also shown is insert of about 35 kb

covering part the T ferrooxidans glmU gene complete gene ORF3

62

kb kb

434 ----

186 ---

140 115

508 475 450 456

284 259 214 199

~ 1 7 164

116

EcoRI Stul

t t kb 164 bull pUCBM20

Stul EcoRI

--------------~t-----------------=rkbbull 186 bull pUCBM21

Fig 34 p81816r and p81816f restricted with EcoRI and StuI restriction enzymes Since the

EcoRI site is at opposite ends of these vectors the StuI-EcoRI digest gave different fragment

sizes as illustrated in the diagram beneath Both constructs are in the same orientaion in the

vectors A Pst molecular weight marker (extreme right lane) was used to determine the size

of the bands In lane x is an EcoRI digest of p81816

63

80) and the BLAST subroutines (NCIB New Bethesda Maryland USA)

3310 Complementaton studies

Competent Ecoli glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) cells were transformed with plasmid constructs

p8I8I6f and p8I8I6r Transformants were selected on LA + amp Transformations of the

Ecoli glmS mutant CGSC 5392 with p8I8I as well as pTfatpl and pTfatp2 were also carried

out Controls were set by plating transformed pUCBM20 and pUCBM2I transformed cells as

well as untransformed cells on Luria agar plate Prior to these experiments the glmS mutants

were plated on LA supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200 Ilgml) to serve as control

64

34 Results and discussion

341 DNA sequence analysis

Fig 35 shows the entire DNA sequence of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment cloned into

pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 The restriction endonuclease sites derived from the sequence data

agreed with the restriction maps obtained previously (Fig 31) Analysis of the sequence

revealed two complete open reading frames (ORFs) and one partial ORF (Fig 35 and 36)

Translation of the first partial ORF and the complete ORFs produced peptide sequences with

strong homology to the products of the glmU and glmS genes of Ecoli and the tnsA gene of

Tn7 respectively Immediately downstream of the complete ORF is a region which resembles

the inverted repeat sequences of transposon Tn 7 The Tn7-like sequences will be discussed

in Chapter 4

342 Analysis of partial ORF-1

This ORF was identified on the basis of its extensive protein sequence homology with the

uridyltransferases of Ecoli and Bsubtilis (Fig 36) There are two stop codons (547 and 577)

before the glmS initiation codon ATG (bold and underlined in Fig 35) Detailed analysis of

the DNA sequences of the glmU ORF revealed the same peculiar six residue periodicity built

around many glycine residues as reported by Ullrich and van Putten (1995) In the 560 bp

C-terminal sequence presented in Fig 37 there are several (LlIN)G pairs and a large number

of tandem hexapeptide repeats containing the consensus sequence (LIIN)(GX)X4 which

appear to be characteristic of a number of bacterial acetyl- and acyltransferases (Vaara 1992)

65

The complete nucleotide Seltluelnce the 35 kb BamBI-BamBI fragment ofp81816

sequence includes part of VVltUUl~ampl glmU (ORFl) the entire T ferrooxidans

glmS gene (ORF2) and ORF3 homology to TnsA and inverted

repeats of transposon Tn7 aeOlucea amino acid sequence

frames is shown below the Among the features highlighted are

codons (bold and underlined) of glmS gene (ATG) and ORF3 good Shine

Dalgarno sequences (bold) immediately upstream the initiation codons of ORF2

and the stop codons (bold) of glmU (ORFl) glmS (ORF2) and tnsA genes Also shown are

the restriction some of the enzymes which were used to 1816

66

is on the page) B a m H

1 60

61 TGGCGCCGTTTTGCAGGATGCGCGGATTGGTGACGATGTGGAGATTCTACCCTACAGCCA 120

121 TATCGAAGGCGCCCAGATTGGGGCCGGGGCGCGGATAGGACCTTTCGCGCGGATTCGCCC 180

181 CGGAACGGAGATCGGCGAACGTCATATCGGCAACTATGTCGAGGTGAAGGCGGCCAAAAT 240 GlyThrGluI IleGlyAsnTyrValGluValLysAlaAlaLysIle

241 CGGCGCGGGCAGCAAGGCCAACCACCTGAGTTACCTTGGGGACGCGGAGATCGGTACCGG 300

301 GGTGAATGTGGGCGCCGGGACGATTACCTGCAATTATGACGGTGCGAACAAACATCGGAC 360

361 CATCATCGGCAATGACGTGTTCATCGGCTCCGACAGCCAGTTGGTGGCGCCAGTGAACAT 420 I1eI1eG1yAsnAspVa1PheIleGlySerAspSerGlnLeuVa1A1aProVa1AsnI1e

421 CGGCGACGGAGCGACCATCGGCGCGGGCAGCACCATTACCAAAGAGGTACCTCCAGGAGG 480 roG1yG1y

481 GCTGACGCTGAGTCGCAGCCCGCAGCGTACCATTCCTCATTGGCAGCGGCCGCGGCGTGA 540

541

B g

1 I I

601 CGGTATTGTCGGTGGGGTGAGTAAAACAGATCTGGTCCCGATGATTCTGGAGGGGTTGCA 660 roMetIleLeuG1uG1yLeuGln

661 GCGCCTGGAGTATCGTGGCTACGACTCTGCCGGGCTGGCGATATTGGGGGCCGATGCGGA 720

721 TTTGCTGCGGGTGCGCAGCGTCGGGCGGGTCGCCGAGCTGACCGCCGCCGTTGTCGAGCG 780

781 TGGCTTGCAGGGTCAGGTGGGCATCGGCCACACGCGCTGGGCCACCCATGGCGGCGTCCG 840

841 CGAATGCAATGCGCATCCCATGATCTCCCATGAACAGATCGCTGTGGTCCATAACGGCAT 900 GluCysAsnAlaHisProMet

901 CATCGAGAACTTTCATGCCTTGCGCGCCCACCTGGAAGCAGCGGGGTACACCTTCACCTC 960 I

961 CGAGACCGATACGGAGGTCATCGCGCATCTGGTGCACCATTATCGGCAGACCGCGCCGGA 1020 IleAlaHisLeuValHisHisTyrArgG1nThrA1aP

1021 CCTGTTCGCGGCGACCCGCCGGGCAGTGGGCGATCTGCGCGGCGCCTATGCCATTGCGGT 1080

1081 GATCTCCAGCGGCGATCCGGAGACCGTGTGCGTGGCACGGATGGGCTGCCCGCTGCTGCT 1140

67

1141 GGGCGTTGCCGATGATGGGCATTACTTCGCCTCGGACGTGGCGGCCCTGCTGCCGGTGAC 1200 GlyValAlaAspAspGlyHisTyrPheAlaSerAspValAlaAlaLeuLeuProValThr

1201 CCGCCGCGTGTTGTATCTCGAAGACGGCGATGTGGCCATGCTGCAGCGGCAGACCCTGCG 1260 ArgArgVa

1261 GATTACGGATCAGGCCGGAGCGTCGCGGCAGCGGGAAGAACACTGGAGCCAGCTCAGTGC 1320

1321 GGCGGCTGTCGATCTGGGGCCTTACCGCCACTTCATGCAGAAGGAAATCCACGAACAGCC 1380 AIaAIaValAspLeuGIyP

B

g

1 I

I 1381 CCGCGCGGTTGCCGATACCCTGGAAGGTGCGCTGAACAGTCAACTGGATCTGACAGATCT 1440

ArgAIaValAIaAspThrLeuGIuGIyAIaLeuAsnSerGInLeuAspLeuThrAspLeu

1441 CTGGGGAGACGGTGCCGCGGCTATGTTTCGCGATGTGGACCGGGTGCTGTTCCTGGCCTC 1500 lLeuPheLeuAlaSer

1501 CGGCACTAGCCACTACGCGACATTGGTGGGACGCCAATGGGTGGAAAGCATTGTGGGGAT 1560

1561 TCCGGCGCAGGCCGAGCTGGGGCACGAATATCGCTACCGGGACTCCATCCCCGACCCGCG 1620 ProAlaGlnAlaGluLeuGlyHisGluTyrArgTyrArgAspSerIleProAspProArg

S

t

u

I

1621 CCAGTTGGTGGTGACCCTTTCGCAATCCGGCGAAACGCTGGATACTTTCGAGGCCTTGCG 1680

1681 CCGCGCCAAGGATCTCGGTCATACCCGCACGCTGGCCATCTGCAATGTTGCGGAGAGCGC 1740 IleCysAsnValAlaGluSerAla

1741 CATTCCGCGGGCGTCGGCGTTGCGCTTCCTGACCCGGGCCGGCCCAGAGATCGGAGTGGC 1800 lIeP leGIyValAIa

1801 CTCGACCAAGGCGTTCACCACCCAGTTGGCGGCGCTCTATCTGCTGGCTCTGTCCCTGGC 1860 rLeuAIa

1861 CAAGGCGCCAGGGGCATCTGAACGATGTGCAGCAGGCGGATCACCTGGACGCTTGCGGCA 1920

1921 ACTGCCGGGCAGTGTCCAGCATGCCCTGAACCTGGAGCCGCAGATTCAGGGTTGGGCGGC 1980

1981 ACGTTTTGCCAGCAAGGACCATGCGCTTTTTCTGGGGCGCGGCCTGCACTACCCCATTGC 2040 lIeAla

2041 GCTGGAGGGCGCGCTGAAGCTCAAGGAAATCTCCTATATCCACGCCGAGGCTTATCCCGC 2100

2101 GGGCGAATTGAAGCATGGCCCCTTGGCCCTGGTGGACCGCGACATGCCCGTGGTGGTGAT 2160

2161 2220

2221 TGGCGGTGAGCTCTATGTTTTTGCCGATTCGGACAGCCACTTTAACGCCAGTGCGGGCGT 2280 GlyGlyGluLeuTyrValPheAlaAspSerAspSerHisPheAsnAlaSerAlaGlyVal

68

2281 GCATGTGATGCGTTTGCCCCGTCACGCCGGTCTGCTCTCCCCCATCGTCCATGCTATCCC 2340 leValHisAlaIlePro

2341 GGTGCAGTTGCTGGCCTATCATGCGGCGCTGGTGAAGGGCACCGATGTGGATCGACCGCG 2400

2401 TAACCTCGCGAAGAGCGTGACGGTGGAGTAATGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGGGTGTTGTT 2460 AsnLeuAlaLysSerValThrVa1G1uEnd

2461 AACGGACAATAGAGTATCATTCTGGACAATAGAGTTTCATCCCGAACAATAAAGTATCAT 2520

2521 CCTCAACAATAGAGTATCATCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCT 2580 s a 1 I

2581 2640

2641 GTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGGAGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGG 2700 Va1A1aArgPheG1nLysG1uG1yArgG1yGlnG1yArgGlyA1aAspTyrHisProTrp

2701 CTTACCATCCAAGACGTGCCCTCCCAAGGGCGGTCCCACCGACTCAAGGGCATCAAGACC 2760 LeuThrI~~~~un0v

2761 GGGCGAGTGCATCACCTGCTCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACATCTTCTACCTGTTCGATTGG 2820

2821 GCAGACGCCGTCACGGACATCCGCGAACAGTTTCCGCTGAATCGCGACATCACTCGCCGT 2880

2881 ATTGCGGATGATCTTGGGGTCATCCATCCCCGCGATGTTGGCAGCGGCACCCCTCTAGTC 2940 I I

2941 ATGACCACGGACTTTCTTGTGGACACGATCCATGATGGACGTATGGTGCAACTGGCGCGG 3000

3001 GCGGTAAAACCGGCTGAAGAACTTGAAAAGCCGCGGGTGGTCGAAAAACTGGAGATTGAA 3060 A1aVa1LysProA1aG1uG1uLeuG1uLysProArgValVa1G1uLysLeuG1uI1eG1u

3061 CGCCGTTATTGGGCGCAGCAAGGCGTGGATTGGGGCGTCGTCACCGAGCGGGACATCCCG 3120 ArgArgTyrTrpAlaG1nG1nG1yVa1AspTrpGlyVa1Va1ThrG1uArgAspI1ePro

3121 AAAGCGATGGTTCGCAATATCGCCTGGGTTCACAGTTATGCCGTAATTGACCAGATGAGC 3180 Ser

3181 CAGCCCTACGACGGCTACTACGATGAGAAAGCAAGGCTGGTGTTACGAGAACTTCCGTCG 3240 GlnP roSer

3241 CACCCGGGGCCTACCCTCCGGCAATTCTGCGCCGACATGGACCTGCAGTTTTCTATGTCT 3300

3301 GCTGGTGACTGTCTCCTCCTAATTCGCCACTTGCTGGCCACGAAGGCTAACGTCTGTCCT 3360 ro

H i

d

I

I

I

3361 ATGGACGGGCCTACGGACGACTCCAAGCTTTTGCGTCAGTTTCGAGTGGCCGAAGGTGAA 3420

69

3421 TCCAGGAGGGCCAGCGGATGAGGGATCTGTCGGTCAACCAATTGCTGGAATACCCCGATG 3480

B a m H

I

3481 AAGGGAAGATCGAAAGGATCC 3501

70

Codon Table tfchrolDcod Pre flUndov 25 ~(I Codon threshold -010 lluHlndov 25 Denslty 1149

I I J

I

IS

1

bullbullbull bullbullbull bull -shy bull bull I I U abull IS

u ubullow

-shy I c

110 bull

bullS 0 a bullbullS

a

middot 0

a bullbullbull (OR-U glmS (ORF-2) bull u bullbullbull 0

I I 1-4

11

I 1

S

bullbullbull bullbullbull

1 I J

Fig 36 Codon preference and bias plot of nucleotide sequence of the 35 kb p81816

Bamill-BamHI fragment The codon preference plot was generated using the an established

codon usage table for Tferrooxidans The partial open reading frame (ORFI) and the two

complete open reading frames (ORF2 and ORF3) are shown as open rectangles with rare

codons shown as bars beneath them

71

37 Alignment C-terminal 120 UDP-N-acetylclucosamine pyrophosphorylase (GlmU)

of Ecoli (E_c) and Bsubtilis (B_s) to GlmU from T ferrooxidans Amino acids are identified

by their letter codes and the sequences are from the to carboxyl

terminaL consensus amino acids to T ferrooxidans glmU are in bold

251 300 DP NVLFVGEVHL GHRVRVGAGA DT NVIIEGNVTL GHRVKIGTGC YP GTVIKGEVQI GEDTIIGPHT

301 350 VLQDARIGDD VEILPYSHIE GAQlGAGARI GPlARJRPGT Z lGERHIGN VIKNSVIGDD CEISPYTVVE DANL~CTI GPlARLRPGA ELLEGAHVGN EIMNSAIGSR TVIKQSVVN HSKVGNDVNI GPlAHIRPDS VIGNEVKIGN

351 400 YVEVKAAKIG AGSKANHLSY LGDAEIGTGV NVGAGTITCN YDGANKHRTI FVEMKKARLG KGSKAGHLTY LGDAEIGDNV NlGAGTITCN YDGANKFKTI FVEIKKTQFG DRSKASHLSY VGDAEVGTDV NLGCGSITVN YDGKNKYLTK

401 450 IGNDVlIGSD SQLVAPVNIG DGATlGAGST ITKEVPPGGL TLSRSPQRTI IGDDVlVGSD TQLVAPVTVG KGATIAAGTT VTRNVGENAL AISRVPQTQK IEDGAlIGCN SNLVAPVTVG EGAYVAAGST VTEDVPGKAL AIARARQVNK

451 PHWQRPRRDK EGWRRPVKKK DDYVKNIHKK

A second complete open (ORF-2) of 183 kb is shown A BLAST

search of the GenBank and data bases indicated that was homologous to the LJJuLJ

glmS gene product of Ecoli (478 identical amino acids sequences)

Haemophilus influenza (519) Bacillus subtilis (391 ) )QlXl4fJromVjce cerevisiae (394 )

and Mycobacterium (422 ) An interesting observation was that the T ferrooxidans

glmS gene had comparatively high homology sequences to the Rhizobium leguminosarum and

Rhizobium meliloti M the amino to was 44 and 436

respectively A consensus Dalgarno upstream of the start codon

(ATG) is in 35 No Ecoli a70-type n r~ consensus sequence was

detected in the bp preceding the start codon on intergenic distance

between the two and the absence of any promoter consensus sequence Plumbridge et

al (1993) that the Ecoli glmU and glmS were co-transcribed In the case

the glmU-glmS --n the T errooxidans the to be similar The sequences

homology to six other amidotransferases (Fig 38) which are

(named after the purF-encoded l phosphoribosylpyrophosphate

amidotransferase) and Weng (1987)

The glutamine amide transfer domain of approximately 194 amino acid residues is at the

of protein chain Zalkin and Mei (1989) using site-directed to

the 9 invariant amino acids in the glutamine amide transfer domain of

phosphoribosylpyrophosphated indicated in their a

catalytic triad is involved glutamine amide transfer function of

73

Comparison of the ammo acid sequence alignment of ghtcosamine-6-phosphate

amidotranferases (GFAT) of Rhizobium meliloti (R_m) Rhizobium leguminnosarum (RJ)

Ecoli (E_c) Hinjluenzae Mycobacterium leprae (M_I) Bsubtilis (B_s) and

Scerevisiae (S_c) to that of Tferrooxidans Amino acids are identified by their single

codes The asterisks () represent homologous amino acids of Tferrooxidans glmS to

at least two of the other Consensus ammo acids to all eight organisms are

highlighted (bold and underlined)

1 50 R m i bullbullbullbullbullbull hkps riag s tf bullbullbullbull R~l i bullbullbullbullbullbull hqps rvaep trod bullbullbullbull a

a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa 1r 1 d bullbullbull a a bullbullbullbullbullbull aa inh g bullbullbullbullbullbull sktIv pmilq 1 1g bullbullbull a MCGIVi V D Gli RI IYRGYPSAi AI D 1 gvmar s 1gsaks Ikek a bullbullbullbull qfcny Iversrgi tvq t dgd bullbull ead

51 100 R m hrae 19ktrIk bull bullbull bullbull s t ateR-l tqrae 19rkIk bullbullbull s t atrE-c htIrI qmaqae bull bull h bullbull h gt sv aae in qicI kads stbull bullbull k bullbull i gt T f- Ivsvr aetav bullbullbull r bullbull gq qg c

DL R R G V L AV E L G VGI lTRW E H ntvrrar Isesv1a mv bull sa nIgi rtr gihvfkekr adrvd bullbullbull bullbull nve aka g sy1stfiykqi saketk qnnrdvtv she reqv

101 150 R m ft g skka aevtkqt R 1 ft g ak agaqt E-c v hv hpr krtv aae in sg tf hrI ksrvlq T f- m i h q harah eatt

S E Eamp L A GY l SE TDTEVIAHL ratg eiavv av

qsaIg lqdvk vqv cqrs inkke cky

151 200 bullbull ltk bullbull dgcm hmcve fe a v n bull Iak bullbull dgrrm hmrvk fe st bull bull nweI bullbull kqgtr Iripqr gtvrh 1 s bull bull ewem bullbullbull tds kkvqt gvrh hlvs bull bull hh bullbull at rrvgdr iisg evm

V YR T DLF A A L AV S D PETV AR G M 1 eagvgs lvrrqh tvfana gvrs B s tef rkttIks iInn rvknk 5 c Ihlyntnlqn ~lt klvlees glckschy neitk

74

201 R m ph middot middot middot R 1 ah- middot middot middot middot middot middot E c 1 middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in 1 middot middot middot middot middot T f - c11v middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot M 1 tli middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s 11 middot middot middot middot middot S c lvkse kk1kvdfvdv

251 R m middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot R-1 middot middot middot middot middot middot E c middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot Hae in middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot T f shy middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot 1M middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot B s middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot S c feagsqnan1 1piaanefn1

301 R m fndtn wgkt R-1 fneti wgkt E c rf er Hae in srf er T f- rl mlqq

PVTR V YE DGDVA R M 1 ehqaeg qdqavad B s qneyem kmvdd S c khkkl dlhydg

351 R m nhpe v R-1 nhe v E c i nk Hae in k tli T f- lp hr

~ YRHlrM~ ~I EQP AVA M 1 geyl av B-s tpl tdvvrnr S-c pd stf

401 Rm slasa lk R-1 slasca lk E c hql nssr Hae in hq nar-T f f1s hytrq

RVL A SiIS A VG W M 1 ka slakt B s g kqS c lim scatrai

250

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot

middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot efpeenagqp eip1ksnnks fglgpkkare

300 m lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middotmiddot nm lgiamiddot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot mn iq1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot in 1q1middot middot middot middot middot middot middot middot adgh fvamiddot middot middot middot middot D Y ASD ALL

middot middot middot m vgvaimiddot middot middot middot middot tfn vvmmiddot middot middot middot middotmiddot middot middot middot rhsqsraf1s edgsptpvf vsasvv

350 sqi pr latdlg gh eprq taaf1 snkt a ekqdi enqydg tdth kakei ennda t1rtqa a srqee wqsa

1 D G R H S L A AVD gyrs ddanartf hiwlaa qvkn d asy asd e1hhrsrre vgasmsiq t1laqm

400 raghy vnshvttt tdidag iaghy vkscrsd d idag trsg qlse1pn delsk er nivsing kgiek dea1sq 1d1tlwdg amr

TL G N D G A A F DVD dlhftgg rv1eqr1 dqer kiiqty q engk1svpgd iaavaa rrdy nnkvilglk w1pvvrrar

450 rrli ipraa rr1 a ipqa lgc ksavrrn lgsc kfvtrn vivgaq algh sipdrqv ~S IP E llRYR D P L

ihtr1 1 pvdrstv imn hsn mplkkp e1sds lld kcpvfrddvc

75

li li t1 t1 tll V

v

451 500

sc vtreta aapil sc vareta api1 gls psv lan la asv la era aa1r RTF ALR K OLG Smiddot FLTRA evha qkak srvvqv ahkat tpts 1nc1 ra vsvsis

501 550 cv tdv lqsat r cv aragag sga 1sae t tvl vanvsrlk

hskr aserc~agg

kypvr

vskrri

ldasih v sectPEIGVAS~ A[TTQLA L LIAL L KA sect tlavany gaaq a aiv vsvaadkn ~ syiav ssdd

a1

551 600 mrit 15 5hydv tal mg vs sncdv tsl rms krae sh ekaa tae ah sqha qqgwar asd V LN LE P I A ~ K HALFL

adyr aqsttv nameacqk dmmiy tvsni

as

qkk rkkcate yqaa i

601 650 i h t qpk5 q h tt a ad ne lke a ad ne vke ap rd laamq XIHAE Y E~PLALV 0

m EK N EY a11r

g ti qgtfa1 tqhvn1 sirgk msv1 v afg trs pvs

m i

651 700 vai 51

R-1 rii1 tkgaa Rm arii1 ttgas

vdi 51 E=c

LV

r qag sni ehei if Hae in kag tpsgki tknv if T f shy ihav

ADO F H ssh nasagvvm

P V IE qisavti gdt r1yad1 lsv aantc slkg1 addrf vnpa1 sv t cnndvwaq evqtvc1q ni

76

701 tvm a tvfm sy a r LAYH ~VK2 TJ2m PRNLA KSVrVE asqar yk iyahr ck swlvn if

77

which has been by authors to the nucleophilicity

Cys1 is believed to fonn a glutamine pnvrn covalent intennediate these enzymes the

required the fonnation of the covalent glutaminyl tenme~llalte IS

residue The UlllU- sequence

glmS revealed a triad of which corresponds triad

of the glutamine amide transfer domain suggested Zalkin and (1990) which

is conserved the C-tenninal sequences of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and nodulation

Rhizobium (Surin and Downie 1988) is conserved same

position gimS of T ferrooxidans as Lys721 in Fig In fact last 12

acid of all the amidotransferases 38) are highly conserved GlmS been found to be

inactivated by iodoacetamide (Badet et al 1987) the glutarnide analogue 6-diazo-5shy

oxonorleucine (Badet et al 1987) and N3 -furnaroyl-L-23-diaminopropionate derivatives

(Kucharczyk et ai 1990) a potential for and antifungal

a5-u (Andruszkiewicz et 1990 Badet-Denisot et al 1993) Whether is also the case

for Tferrooxidans glmS is worth investigating considering high acid

sequence homology to the glmS and the to control Tferrooxidans growth

to reduce pollution from acid drainage

The complementation an Ecoli growth on LA to no N-acetyl

glucosamine had added is given in 31 indicated the complete

Tferrooxidans glmS gene was cloned as a 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of 1820 into

pUCBM20 and -JAJu-I (p8I81 and p81816r) In both constructs glmS gene is

78

oriented in the 5-3 direction with respect to the lacZ promoter of the cloning vectors

Complementation was detected by the growth of large colonies on Luria agar plates compared

to Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 transformed with vector Untransformed mutant cells produced

large colonies only when grown on Luria agar supplemented with N-acetyl glucosamine (200

Atgml) No complementation was observed for the Ecoli glmS mutant transformed with

pTfatpl and pTfatp2 as neither construct contained the entire glmS gene Attempts to

complement the Ecoli glmS mutant with p8181 and p81820 were also not successful even

though they contained the entire glmS gene The reason for non-complementation of p8181

and p81820 could be that the natural promoter of the T errooxidans glmS gene is not

expressed in Ecoli

79

31 Complementation of Ecoli mutant CGSC 5392 by various constructs

containing DNA the Tferrooxidans ATCC 33020 unc operon

pSlS1 +

pSI 16r +

IS1

pSlS20

pTfatpl

pTfatp2

pUCBM20

pUCBM2I

+ complementation non-complementation

80

Deduced phylogenetic relationships between acetyVacyltransferases

(amidotransferases) which had high sequence homology to the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Rhizobium melioli (Rhime) Rleguminosarum (Rhilv) Ecoli (Ee) Hinjluenzae (Haein)

T ferrooxidans (Tf) Scerevisiae (Saee) Mleprae (Myele) and Bsublilis (Baesu)

tr1 ()-ltashyc 8 ~ er (11

-l l

CIgt

~ r (11-CIgt (11

-

$ -0 0shy

a c

omiddot s

S 0 0shyC iii omiddot $

ttl ~ () tI)

I-ltashyt ()

0

~ smiddot (11

81

CHAPTER 4

8341 Summary

8442 Introduction

8643 Materials and methods

431 Bacterial strains and plasmids 86

432 DNA constructs subclones and shortenings 86

864321 Contruct p81852

874322 Construct p81809

874323 Plasmid p8I809 and its shortenings

874324 p8I8II

8844 Results and discussion

441 Analysis of the sequences downstream the glmS gene 88

442 TnsBC homology 96

99443 Homology to the TnsD protein

118444 Analysis of DNA downstream of the region with TnsD homology

LIST OF FIGURES

87Fig 41 Alignment of Tn7-like sequence of T jerrooxidans to Ecoli Tn7

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the proximal end of Tn5468 and Ecoli glmS gene 88

Fig 43 Comparison of the inverted repeats of Tn7 and Tn5468 89

Fig 44 BLAST results of the sequence downtream of T jerrooxidans glmS 90

Fig 45 Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 TnsA-like protein 92 to TnsA of Tn7

82

Fig 46 Restriction map of the region of cosmid p8181 with amino acid 95 sequence homology to TnsABC and part of TnsD of Tn7

Fig 47 Restriction map of cosmid p8181Llli with its subclonesmiddot and 96 shortenings

98 Fig 48 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852r

100 Fig 49 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81852f

102 Fig 410 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p81809

Fig 411 Diagrammatic representation of the rearrangement of Tn5468 TnsDshy 106 like protein

107Fig 412 Restriction digests on p818lLlli

108 Fig 413 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818lOEM

109 Fig 414 BLAST results on joined sequences of p818104 and p818103

111 Fig 415 BLAST results and DNA sequence of p818102

112 Fig 416 BLAST results and nucleotide sequence of p818101

Fig 417 BLAST results and DNA sequence of the combined sequence of 113p818l1f and p81810r

Fig 418 Results of the BLAST search on p81811r and the DNA sequence 117obtained from p81811r

Fig 419 Comparison of the spa operons of Ecali Hinjluenzae and 121 probable structure of T ferraaxidans spa operon

83

CHAPTER FOUR

TN7-LlKE TRANSPOSON OF TFERROOXIDANS

41 Summary

Various constructs and subclones including exonuclease ill shortenings were produced to gain

access to DNA fragments downstream of the T ferrooxidans glmS gene (Chapter 3) and

sequenced Homology searches were performed against sequences in GenBank and EMBL

databases in an attempt to find out how much of a Tn7-like transposon and its antibiotic

markers were present in the T ferrooxidans chromosome (downstream the glmS gene)

Sequences with high homology to the TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD proteins of Tn7 were

found covering a region of about 7 kb from the T ferrooxidans glmS gene

Further sequencing (plusmn 45 kb) beyond where TnsD protein homology had been found

revealed no sequences homologous to TnsE protein of Tn7 nor to any of the antibiotic

resistance markers associated with Tn7 However DNA sequences very homologous to Ecoli

ATP-dependentDNA helicase (RecG) protein (EC 361) and guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate)

3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) stringent response protein of Ecoli HinJluenzae and

Vibrio sp were found about 15 kb and 4 kb respectively downstream of where homology to

the TnsD protein had been detected

84

42 Transposable insertion sequences in Thiobacillus ferrooxidizns

The presence of two families (family 1 and 2) of repetitive DNA sequences in the genome

of T ferrooxidans has been described previously (Yates and Holmes 1987) One member of

the family was shown to be a 15 kb insertion sequence (IST2) containing open reading

frames (ORFs) (Yates et al 1988) Sequence comparisons have shown that the putative

transposase encoded by IST2 has homology with the proteins encoded by IS256 and ISRm3

present in Staphylococcus aureus and Rhizobium meliloti respectively (Wheatcroft and

Laberge 1991) Restriction enzyme analysis and Southern hybridization of the genome of

T ferrooxidans is consistent with the concept that IST2 can transpose within Tferrooxidans

(Holmes and Haq 1990) Additionally it has been suggested that transposition of family 1

insertion sequences (lST1) might be involved in the phenotypic switching between iron and

sulphur oxidizing modes of growth including the reversible loss of the capacity of

T ferrooxidans to oxidise iron (Schrader and Holmes 1988)

The DNA sequence of IST2 has been determined and exhibits structural features of a typical

insertion sequence such as target-site duplications ORFs and imperfectly matched inverted

repeats (Yates et al 1988) A transposon-like element Tn5467 has been detected in

T ferrooxidans plasmid pTF-FC2 (Rawlings et al 1995) This transposon-like element is

bordered by 38 bp inverted repeat sequences which has sequence identity in 37 of 38 and in

38 of 38 to the tnpA distal and tnpA proximal inverted repeats of Tn21 respectively

Additionally Kusano et al (1991) showed that of the five potential ORFs containing merR

genes in T ferrooxidans strain E-15 ORFs 1 to 3 had significant homology to TnsA from

transposon Tn7

85

Analysis of the sequence at the tenninus of the 35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of p81820

revealed an ORF with very high homology to TnsA protein of the transposon Tn7 (Fig 44)

Further studies were carried out to detennine how much of the Tn7 transposition genes were

present in the region further downstream of the T ferroxidans glmS gene Tn7 possesses

trimethoprim streptomycin spectinomycin and streptothricin antibiotic resistance markers

Since T ferrooxidans is not exposed to a hospital environment it was of particular interest to

find out whether similar genes were present in the Tn7-like transposon In the Ecoli

chromosome the Tn7 insertion occurs between the glmS and the pho genes (pstS pstC pstA

pstB and phoU) It was also of interest to detennine whether atp-glm-pst operon order holds

for the T ferrooxidans chromosome It was these questions that motivated the study of this

region of the chromosome

43 OJII

strains and plasm ids used were the same as in Chapter Media and solutions (as

in Chapter 3) can in Appendix Plasmid DNA preparations agarose gel

electrophoresis competent cell preparations transformations and

were all carned out as Chapter 3 Probe preparation Southern blotting hybridization and

detection were as in Chapter 2 The same procedures of nucleotide

DNA sequence described 2 and 3 were

4321 ~lllu~~~

Plasmid p8I852 is a KpnI-SalI subclone p8I820 in the IngtUMnt vector kb) and

was described Chapter 2 where it was used to prepare the probe for Southern hybridization

DNA sequencing was from both (p81852r) and from the Sail sites

(p8I852f)

4322 ==---==

Construct p81809 was made by p8I820 The resulting fragment

(about 42 kb) was then ligated to a Bluescript vector KS+ with the same

enzymes) DNA sequencing was out from end of the construct fA

87

4323 ~mlJtLru1lbJmalpoundsectM~lllgsect

The 40 kb EeoRI-ClaI fragment p8181Llli into Bluescript was called p8181O

Exonuclease III shortening of the fragment was based on the method of Heinikoff (1984) The

vector was protected with and ClaI was as the susceptible for exonuclease III

Another construct p818IOEM was by digesting p81810 and pUCBM20 with MluI and

EeoRI and ligating the approximately 1 kb fragment to the vector

4324 p81811

A 25 ApaI-ClaI digest of p8181Llli was cloned into Bluescript vector KS+ and

sequenced both ends

88

44 Results and discussion

of glmS gene termini (approximately 170

downstream) between

comparison of the nucleotide

coli is shown in Fig 41 This region

site of Tn7 insertion within chromosome of E coli and the imperfect gtpound1

repeat sequences of was marked homology at both the andVI

gene but this homology decreased substantially

beyond the stop codon

amino acid sequence

been associated with duplication at

the insertion at attTn7 by (Lichtenstein and as

CCGGG in and underlined in Figs41

CCGGG and are almost equidistant from their respelt~tle

codons The and the Tn7-like transposon BU- there is

some homology transposons in the regions which includes

repeats

11 inverted

appears to be random thereafter 1) The inverted

repeats of to the inverted repeats of element of

(Fig 43) eight repeats

(four traJrlsposcm was registered with Stanford University

California as

A search on the (GenBank and EMBL) with

of 41 showed high homology to the Tn sA protein 44) Comparison

acid sequence of the TnsA-like protein Tn5468 to the predicted of the

89

Fig 41

Alignment of t DNA sequence of the Tn7-li e

Tferrooxi to E i Tn7 sequence at e of

insertion transcriptional t ion s e of

glmS The ent homology shown low occurs within

the repeats (underl of both the

Tn7-li transposon Tn7 (Fig 43) Homology

becomes before the end of t corresponding

impe s

T V E 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ec Tn 7

Tf7shy(like)

70 80 90 100 110 120

Tf7shy(1

130 140 150 160 170 180 Ec Tn 7 ~~~=-

Tf7shy(like)

90

Fig 42 DNA sequences at the 3 end of the Ecoll glmS and the tnsA proximal of Tn7 to the DNA the 3end of the Tferrooxidans gene and end of Tn7-like (a) DNA sequence determined in the Ecoll strain GD92Tn7 in which Tn been inserted into the glmS transcriptional terminator Walker at ai 1986 Nucleotide 38 onwards are the of the left end of Tn DNA

determined in T strain ATCC 33020 with the of 7-like at the termination site of the glmS

gene Also shown are the 22 bp of the Tn7-like transposon as well as the region where homology the protein begins A good Shine

sequence is shown immediately upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon for the transposon

(a)

_ -35 PLE -10 I tr T~ruR~1 truvmnWCIGACUur ~~GCfuA

100 no 110 110 110

4 M S S bull S I Q I amp I I I I bull I I Q I I 1 I Y I W L ~Tnrcmuamaurmcrmrarr~GGQ1lIGTuaDACf~1lIGcrA

DO 200 amp10 220 DG Zlaquot UO ZIG riO

T Q IT I I 1 I I I I I Y sir r I I T I ILL I D L I ilGIIilJAUlAmrC~GlWllCCCAcarr~GGAWtCmCamp1tlnmcrArClGACTAGNJ

DO 2 300 no 120 130 340 ISO SIIIO

(b) glmS __ -+ +- _ Tn like

ACGGTGGAGT-_lGGGGCGGTTCGGTGTGCCGG~GTTGTTAACGGACAATAGAGTATCA1~ 20 30 40 50 60

T V E

70 80 90 100 110 120

TCCTGGCCTTGCGCTCCGGAGGATGTGGAGTTAGCTTGCCTAATGATCAGCTAGGAGAGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

ATGCCTTGGCACGCCAACGCTACGGTGTCGACGAAGACCGGGTCGCACGCTTCCAAAAGG 190 200 210 220 230 240

L A R Q R Y G V D E D R V A R F Q K E

AGGGACGTGGTCAGGGGCGTGGCGCAGACTACCACCCCTGGCTTACCATCCAAgACGTGC 250 260 270 280 290 300

G R G Q G R G A D Y H P W L T I Q D V P shy

360310 320 330 340 350

S Q G R S H R L K G I K T G R V H H L L shy

TCTCGGATATTGAGCGCGACA 370 380

S D I E R D

Fig 43 Invert s

(a) TN7

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS NUCLEOTIDES

(b) TN7-LIKE

REPEAT 1

REPEAT 2

REPEAT 3

REPEAT 4

CONSENSUS (all

(c)

T on Tn7 e

91

(a) of

1

the consensus Tn7-like element

s have equal presence (2 it

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTG AA

AACAAAATAG ATCTAAACTA TG

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

GACAATAAAG TCTTAAACTA GA

tctTAAACTa a

GACAATAGAG TATCATTCTG GA

GACAATAGAG TTTCATCCCG AA

AACAATAAAG TATCATCCTC AA

AACAATAGAG TATCATCCTG GC

gACAATAgAG TaTCATcCtg aa a a

Tccc Ta cCtg aa

gAcaAtagAg ttcatc aa

92

44 Results of the BLAST search obtained us downstream of the glmS gene from 2420-3502 Consbold

the DNA ensus amino in

Probability producing Segment Pairs

Reading

Frame Score P(N)

IP13988jTNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 +3 302 11e-58 IJS05851JS0585 t protein A Escher +3 302 16e-58

pirlS031331S03133 t - Escherichia coli t +3 302 38e-38 IS185871S18587 2 Thiobac +3 190 88e-24

gtsp1P139881TNSA ECOLI TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN7 gtpir1S126371S12637 tnsA - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C 273

D IX176931ISTN7TNS 1

and E -

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 302 (1389 bits) Expect = 11e-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 58102 (56 ) positives 71102 (69) Frame +3

Query 189 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLS 368 +A+ E ++AR KEGRGQG G DY PWLT+Q+VPS GRSHR+ KTGRVHHLLS

ct 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSHKTGRVHHLLS 60

369 DIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVIHP 494 D+E +F +W +V DlREQFPL TR+IA D G+ HP

Sbjct 61 DLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIKHP 102

Score = 148 (681 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 2761 (44) Positives 3961 (63) Frame +3

558 DGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLEIERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVH 737 DG Q A VKPA L+ R +EKLE+ERRYW Q+ + W + T+++I + NI W++

ct 121 DGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLELERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLY 180

Query 738 S 740 S

ct 181 S 181

Score = 44 (202 bits) Expect = 1le-58 Sum P(3) = 1le-58 Identities = 913 (69) Positives 1013 (76) Frame = +3

Query 510 GTPLVMTTDFLVD 548 G VM+TDFLVD

Sbjct 106 GVDQVMSTDFLVD 118

IS185871S18587 hypothetical 2 - Thiobaci11us ferrooxidans IX573261TFMERRCG Tferrooxidans merR and merC genes

llus ferroQxidans] = 138

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 190 (874 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum p(2) = 88e-24 Identities 36 9 (61) positives = 4359 (72) Frame = +3

Query 225 VARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGIKTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD 401 +AR KEGRGQG Y PWLT++DVPS+G S R+KG KTGRVHHLLS +E F + D

Sbjct 13 71

93

Score 54 (248 bits) Expect 88e-24 Sum P(2) = 88e-24 Identities = 1113 (84) Positives = 1113 (84) Frame +3

Query 405 ADAVTDIREQFPL 443 A

Sbjct 75 AGCVTDIREQFPL 87

94

Fig 45 (a) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of Tn5468 (which had homology to TnsA of Tn7 Fig 44) to the amino acid sequence of ORF2 (between the merR genes of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S) ORF2 had been found to have significant homology to Tn sA of Tn7 (Kusano et ai 1991) (b) Alignment of the amino acids translation of Tn5468 (above) to Tn sA of Tn7 (c) Alignment of the amino acid sequence of TnsA of Tn7 to the hypothetical ORF2 protein of Tferrooxidans strain E-1S

(al

Percent Similarity 60000 Percent Identity 44444

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI SO 11 1111111 I 1111 1111 I I 111

Tf E-1S 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

Tf Tn5468 Sl KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFD WADAVTDIREQFPLNRDITRRIADDL 97 11111111111 11 1 1111111111 I III

Tf E-1S Sl KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDIRAGCVTDlREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

Tf Tn5468 98 GVIHPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVE 147 I I I I I II I I

Tf E-1S 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVC VDLNAHRRKVQAMRIRRTASGDQ 138

(b)

Percent Similarity S9S42 Percent Identity 42366

Tf Tn5468 1 LARQRYGVDEDRVARFQKEGRGQGRGADYHPWLTIQDVPSQGRSHRLKGI 50 1 111 11111111 II 11111111 11111

Tn sA Tn7 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50

Tf Tn5468 51 KTGRVHHLLSDIERDIFYLFDWADAVTDlREQFPLNRDITRRIADDLGVI 100 111111111111 1 1 I 11111111 II II I I

Tn sA Tn7 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLEWESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAIDSGIK 100

Tf Tn5468 101 HPRDVGSGTPLVMTTDFLVDTIHDGRMVQLARAVKPAEELEKPRVVEKLE 150 I I I I II I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III

Tn sA Tn7 101 HP VIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPAAALQDERTLEKLE 147

Tf Tn5468 151 IERRYWAQQGVDWGVVTERDIPKAMVRNIAWVHSYAVIDQMSQPYDGYYD 200 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 148 LERRYWQQKQIPWFIFTDKEINPVVKENIEWLYSVKTEEVSAELLAQLS 196

Tf Tn5468 201 EKARLVLRELPSHPGPTLRQFCADMDLQFSMSAGDCLLLIRHLLAT 246 I I I I I I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 197 PLAHI LQEKGDENIINVCKQVDIAYDLELGKTLSElRALTANGFIK 242

Tf Tn5468 247 KANVCPMDGPTDDSKLLRQFRVAEGES 273 I I I I I

TnsA Tn7 243 FNIYKSFRANKCADLCISQVVNMEELRYVAN 273

(c)

Percent Similarity 66667 Percent Identity 47287

TnsA Tn 1 MAKANSSFSEVQIARRIKEGRGQGHGKDYIPWLTVQEVPSSGRSHRIYSH 50 I I 1 I I I II I II I 1 I I I I I II 1 II I I I I

Tf E-15 1 MSKGSRRSESGAIARRLKEGRGQGSEKSYKPWLTVRDVPSRGLSVRIKGR 50

TnsA Tn 51 KTGRVHHLLSDLELAVFLSLE WESSVLDIREQFPLLPSDTRQIAID 96 1111111111111 II I 1 11111111 11 11 I

Tf E-15 51 KTGRVHHLLSQLELSYFLMLDDlRAGCVTDIREQFPLTPIETTLEIADIR 100

TnsA Tn 97 SGIKHPVIRGVDQVMSTDFLVDCKDGPFEQFAIQVKPA 134 1 I I I

Tf E-15 101 CAGAHRLVDDDGSVCVDLNAHRRKVQ AMRIRRTASGDQ 138

96

product of ORF2 (hypothetical protein 2 only 138 amino acids) of Terrooxidans E-15

(Kusano et ai 1991) showed 60 similarity and 444 identical amino acids (Fig 45a) The

homology obtained from the amino acid sequence comparison of Tn5468 to TnsA of Tn7

(595 identity and 424 similarity) was lower (Fig 45b) than the homology between

Terrooxidans strain E-15 and TnsA of Tn7 (667 similarity and 473 Identity Fig 45c)

However the lower percentage (59 similarity and 424 identity) can be explained in that

the entire TnsA of Tn7 (273 amino acids) is compared to the TnsA-like protein of Tn5468

unlike the other two Homology of the Tn7-like transposon to TnsA of Tn7 appears to begin

with the codon TTG (Fig 42) instead of the normal methionine initiation codon ATG There

is an ATG codon two bases upstream of what appears to be the TTG initiation codon but it

is out of frame with the rest of the amino acid sequence This is near a consensus ribosome

binding site AGAGG at 5 bp from the apparent TTG initiation codon From these results it

was apparent that a Tn7-like transposon had been inserted in the translational terminator

region of the Terrooxidans glmS gene The question to answer was how much of this Tn7shy

like element was present and whether there were any genetic markers linked to it

442 TnsBC homol0IY

Single strand sequencing from both the KpnI and Sail ends of construct p81852 (Fig 46)

was carried out A search for sequences with homology to each end of p81852 was

performed using the NCBI BLAST subroutine and the results are shown in Figs 48 and 49

respectively The TnsB protein of Tn7 consists of 703 amino acids and aside from being

required for transposition it is believed to play a role in sequence recognition of the host

DNA It is also required for homology specific binding to the 22 bp repeats at the termini of

97

~I EcoRI EcoRI

I -I I-pSISll I i I p81810 20 45 kb

2 Bglll 4 8 10 kb

p81820

TnA _Kpnl Sail p818l6

BamHI BamHI 1__-1 TnsB p8l852

TnsC

Hlndlll sail BamHI ~RII yenD -1- J

p81809 TnsD

Fig 46 Restriction map of pSISI and construct pSlS20 showing the various restriction sites

on the fragments The subclones pSI8I6 pSIS52 and pSI809 and the regions which

revealed high sequence homology to TnsA TnsB TnsC and TnsD are shown below construct

pS1820

98

p8181

O 20 45

81AE

constructs47 Restriction map of cosmid 1 18pound showing

proteins offor sequence homology to thesubclones used to andpS18ll which showed good amino acid sequence homology to

shown is

endsRecG proteins at H -influe nzae

and

99

Tn7 (Orle and Craig 1991) Homology of the KpnI site of p81852 to

TnsB begins with the third amino acid (Y) acid 270 of TnsB The

amino acid sequences are highly conserved up to amino acid 182 for Tn5468 Homology to

the rest of the sequence is lower but clearly above background (Fig 48) The region

TnsB to which homology was found falls the middle of the TnsB of Tn7

with about 270 amino acids of TnsB protein upstream and 320 amino acids downstream

Another interesting observation was the comparatively high homology of the p81852r

InrrflY1

sequence to the ltUuu~u of 48)

The TnsC protein of binds to the DNA in the presence of ATP and is

required for transposition (Orle 1991) It is 555 amino acids long Homolgy to

TnsC from Tn7 was found in a frame which extended for 81 amino acids along the

sequence obtained from p8 of homology corresponded to

163 to 232 of TnsC Analysis of the size of p81852 (17 kb) with respect to

homology to TnsB and of suggests that the size of the Tn5468 TnsB and C

ORFs correspond to those in On average about 40-50 identical and 60shy

65 similar amino were revealed in the BLAST search 49)

443 ~tIl-i2e-Iil~

The location of construct p81809 and p81810 is shown in 46 and

DNA seqllenCes from the EcoRI sites of constructs were

respectively The

(after inverting

the sequence of p81809) In this way 799 sequence which hadand COlrnOlenlenlU

been determined from one or other strand was obtained of search

100

Fig 48 (a) The re S the BLAST of the DNA obtained from p8l852r (from Is)

logy to TnsB in of amino also showed homology to Tra3 transposase of

transposon Tn552 (b) ide of p8l852 and of the open frame

( a) Reading High Proba

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN)

epIP139S9I TNSB_ ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PROT +3 316 318-37 spIP22567IARGA_PSEAE AMINO-ACID ACETYLTRANSFERASE (EC +1 46 000038 epIP1S416ITRA3_STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 +3 69 0028 spIP03181IYHL1_EBV HYPOTHETICAL BHLF1 PROTEIN -3 37 0060 splP08392 I ICP4_HSV11 TRANS-ACTING TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROT +1 45 0082

splP139891TNSB ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSB 702 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 316 (1454 bits) = 31e-37 P 31e-37 Identities = 59114 (51) positives = 77114 (67) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSRYDRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNT 182 Y+IDATIAD+YLV +DR KI+GRP LYIVIDVFSRMITG Y+GFE PS+V AM A N

270 YEIDATIADIYLVDHHDRQKIIGRPTLYIVIDVFSRMITGFYIGFENPSYVVAMQAFVNA 329

183 ATEKVEYCRQFGVEIGAADWPCRPCPTLSRRPGREIAGSALRPFINNFQVRVEN 344 ++K C Q +EI ++DWPC P + E+ + +++F VRVE+

330 CSDKTAICAQHDIEISSSDWPCVGLPDVLLADRGELMSHQVEALVSSFNVRVES 383

splP184161TRA3 STAAU TRANSPOSASE FOR TRANSPOSON TN552 (ORF 480) = 480 shy

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 69 (317 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum p(2) = 0028 Identities = 1448 (2 ) Positives = 2448 (50) Frame +3

51 DRTKIVGRPVLYIVIDVFSRMITGVYVGFEGPSWVGAMMALSNTATEK 194 D+ + RP L I++D +SR I G ++ F+ P+ + L K

Sbjct 176 DQKGNINRPWLTIIMDDYSRAIAGYFISFDAPNAQNTALTLHQAIWNK 223

Score = 36 (166 bits) Expect = 0028 Sum P(2) = 0028 Identities = 515 (33) Positives 1115 (73) Frame = +3

3 YQIDATIADVYLVSR 47 +Q D T+ D+Y++ +

Sbjct 163 WQADHTLLDIYILDQ 177

101

(b)

10 20 30 40 50 60 Y Q I D A T I A D V Y L V S R Y D R T K

AGATCGTCGGACGCCCGGTGCTCTATATCGTCATCGACGTGTTCAGCCGCATGATCACCG 70 80 90 100 110 120

I V G R P V L Y I V I D V F S R MIT G

GCGTGTATGTGGGGTTCGAGGGACCTTCCTGGGTCGGGGCGATGATGGCCCTGTCCAACA 130 140 150 160 170 180

V Y V G F E G P S W V GAM MAL S N Tshy

CCGCCACGGAAAAGGTGGAATATTGCCGCCAGTTCGGCGTCGAGATCGGCGCGGCGGACT 190 200 210 220 230 240

ATE K V E Y C R Q F G V E I G A A D Wshy

GGCCGTGCAGGCCCTGCCCGACGCTTTCTCGGCGACCGGGGAGAGAGATTGCCGGCAGCG 250 260 270 280 290 300

P C R PCP T L S R R P G REI A GSAshy

CATTGAGACCCTTTATCAACAACTTCCAGGTGCGGGTGGAAAAC 310 320 330 340

L R P FIN N F Q V R V E N

102

Fig 49 (a) Results of the BLAST search on the inverted and complemented nucleotide sequence of 1852f (from the Sall site) Results indicate amino acid sequence to the TnsC of Tn7 (protein E is the same as TnsC protein) (b) The nucleotide sequence and open reading frame of p81852f

High Prob producing Segment Pairs Frame Score P(N)

IB255431QQECE7 protein E - Escher +1 176 15e-20 gplX044921lSTN7EUR 1 Tn7 E with +1 176 15e-20 splP058461 ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +1 176 64e-20 gplU410111 4 D20248 gene product [Caenorhab +3 59 17e-06

IB255431QQECE7 ical protein E - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7 (fragment)

294

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 176 (810 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2 = 15e-20 Identities = 2970 (41) Positives = 5170 (72) Frame = +1

34 SLDQVVWLKLDSPYKGSPKQLCISFFQEMDNLLGTPYRARYGASRSSLDEMMVQMAQMAN 213 +++QVV+LK+O + GS K++C++FF+ +0 LG+ Y RYG R ++ M+ M+Q+AN

163 NVEQVVYLKIDCSHNGSLKEICLNFFRALDRALGSNYERRYGLKRHGIETMLALMSQIAN 222

214 LQSLGVLIVD 243 +LG+L++O

Sb 223 AHALGLLVID 232

Score 40 (184 bits) = 15e-20 Sum P(2) = 15e-20 Identities = 69 (66) positives = 89 (88) Frame = +1

1 YPQVVHHAE 27 YPQV++H Ii

153 YPQVIYHRE 161

(b)

1 TATCCGCAAGTCGTCCACCATGCCGAGCCCTTCAGTCTTGACCAAGTGGTCTGGCTGAAG 60 10 20 30 40 50 60

Y P Q V V H H A E P F S L D Q V V W L K

61 CTGGATAGCCCCTACAAAGGATCCCCCAAACAACTCTGCATCAGCTTTTTCCAGGAGATG 120 70 80 90 100 110 120

L D Spy K G S P K Q L CIS F F Q E M

121 GACAATCTATTGGGCACCCCGTACCGCGCCCGGTACGGAGCCAGCCGGAGTTCCCTGGAC 180 130 140 150 160 170 180

D N L L G T P Y R A R Y GAS R S S L D

181 GAGATGATGGTCCAGATGGCGCAAATGGCCAACCTGCAGTCCCTCGGCGTACTGATCGTC 240 190 200 210 220 230 240

E M M V Q M A Q MAN L Q S L G V L I V

241 GAC 244

D

103

using the GenBank and EMBL databases of the joined DNA sequences and open reading

frames are shown in Fig 4lOa and 4lOb respectively Homology of the TnsD-like of protein

of Tn5468 to TnsD of Tn7 (amino acid 68) begins at nucleotide 38 of the 799 bp sequence

and continues downstream along with TnsD of Tn7 (A B C E Fig 411) However

homology to a region of Tn5468 TnsD marked D (Fig 411 384-488 bp) was not to the

predicted region of the TnsD of Tn 7 but to a region further towards the C-terminus (279-313

Fig 411) Thus it appears there has been a rearrangement of this region of Tn5468

Because of what appears to be a rearrangement of the Tn5468 tnsD gene it was necessary to

show that this did not occur during the construction ofp818ILlli or p81810 The 12 kb

fragment of cosmid p8181 from the BgnI site to the HindIII site (Fig21) had previously

been shown to be natural unrearranged DNA from the genome of T ferrooxidans A TCC 33020

(Chapter 2) Plasmid p8181 ~E had been shown to have restriction fragments which

corresponded exactly with those predicted from the map ofp8181 (Fig 412) including the

EcoRl-ClaI p8I8IO construct (lane 7) shown in Fig 412 A sub clone p8I80IEM containing

1 kb EcoRl-MluI fragment ofp818IO (Fig 47) cloned into pUCBM20 was sequenced from

the MluI site A BLAST search using this sequence produced no significant matches to either

TnsD or to any other sequences in the Genbank or EMBL databases (Fig 413) The end of

the nucleotide sequence generated from the MluI site is about 550 bp from the end of the

sequence generated from the p8I81 0 EcoRl site

In other to determine whether any homology to Tn7 could be detected further downstream

construct p8I8I 0 was shortened from ClaI site (Fig 47) Four shortenings namely p8181 01

104

410 Results of BLAST obtained from the inverted of 1809 joined to the forward sequence of p8

to TnsD of Tn7 (b) The from p81809r joined to translation s in all three forward

(al

producing Segment Pairs Frame Score peN) sp P13991lTNSD ECOLI TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PR +2 86 81e-13 gplD139721AQUPAQ1 1 ORF 1 [Plasmid ] +3 48 0046 splP421481HSP PLAIN SPERM PROTAMINE (CYSTEINE-RICH -3 44 026

gtspIPl3991ITNSD TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gtgp1X176931 Tn7 transposition genes tnsA BC D and E Length = 508

plus Strand HSPs

Score = 86 (396 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1426 (53) positives = 1826 (69) Frame = +2

Query 236 LSRYGEGYWRRSHQLPGVLVCPDHGA 313 L+RYGE +W+R LP + CP HGA

132 LNRYGEAFWQRDWYLPALPYCPKHGA 157

Score 55 (253 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities 1448 (29) Positives = 2 48 (47) Frame +2

38 ERLTRDFTLIRLFTAFEPKSVGQSVLASLADGPADAVHVRLGlAASAI 181 ++L + TL L+ F K + + AVH+ LG+AAS +

Sbjct 68 QQLIYEHTLFPLYAPFVGKERRDEAIRLMEYQAQGAVHLMLGVAASRV 115

Score = 49 (225 bits) = 81e-13 Sum peS) 81e-13 Identities 914 (64) positives 1114 (78) Frame = +2

671 VVRKHRKAFHPLRH 712 + RKHRKAF L+H

274 IFRKHRKAFSYLQH 287

Score = 40 (184 bits) Expect = 65e-09 Sum P(4) 6Se-09 Identities = 1035 (28) positives = 1835 (51) Frame = +3

384 QKNCSPVRHSLLGRVAAPSDAVARDCQADAALLDH 488 +K S ++HS++ + P V Q +AL +H

279 RKAFSYLQHSIVWQALLPKLTVIEALQQASALTEH 313

Score = 38 (175 bits) = 81e-l3 Sum peS) 81e-l3 Identities = 723 (30) positives 1023 (43) Frame = +3

501 PSFRDWSAYYRSAVIARGFGKGK 569 PS W+ +Y+ G K K

Sbjct 213 PSLEQWTLFYQRLAQDLGLTKSK 235

Score = 37 (170 bits) = 81e-13 Sum P(5) = 81e-13 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 812 (66) Frame +2

188 SRHTLRYCPICL 223 S + RYCP C+

117 SDNRFRYCPDCV 128

105

(b)

TGAGCCAAAGAATCCGGCCGATCGCGGACTCAGTCCGGAAAGACTGACCAGGGATTTTAC 1 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 60

ACTCGGTTTCTTAGGCCGGCTAGCGCCTGAGTCAGGCCTTTCTGACTGGTCCCTAAAATG

a A K E s G R S R T Q S G K T Q G F y b E P K N p A D R G L S P E R L R D F T c S Q R I R P I ADS V R K D G I L P shy

CCTCATCCGATTATTCACGGCATTCGAGCCGAAGTCAGTGGGACAATCCGTACTGGCGTC 61 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 120

GGAGTAGGCtAATAAGTGCCGTAAGCTCGGCTTCAGTCACCCTGTTAGGCATGACCGCAG

a P H P I I H G I RAE V S G T I R T G V b L I R L F T A F E P K S V G Q S V LAS c S S D Y S R H S S R S Q W D N P Y W R H shy

ATTAGCGGACGGCCCGGCGGATGCCGTGCATGTGCGTCTGGGTATTGCGGCGAGCGCGAT 121 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 180

TAATCGCCTGCCGGGCCGCCTACGGCACGTACACGCAGACCCATAACGCCGCTCGCGCTA

a I S G R P G G C R A C A S G Y C G E R D b L A D G P A D A V H V R L G I A A S A I c R T A R R M P C M C V W V L R R A R F shy

TTCGGGCTCCCGGCATACTTTACGGTATTGTCCCATCTGCCTTTTTGGCGAGATGTTGAG 181 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 240

AAGCCCGAGGGCCGTATGAAATGCCATAACAGGGTAGACGGAAAAACCGCTCTACAACTC

a F G L P A Y F T V L s H L P F W R D V E b S G S R H T L R Y C p I C L F G E M L S c R A P G I L Y G I V P S A F L A R C A

CCGCTATGGAGAAGGATATTGGAGGCGCAGCCATCAACTCCCCGGCGTTCTGGTTTGTCC 241 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 300

GGCGATACCTCTTCCTATAACCTCCGCGTCGGTAGTTGAGGGGCCGCAAGACCAAACAGG

a P L W R R I LEA Q P S T P R R S G L S b R Y G E G Y W R R S H Q LPG V L V C P c A M E K D I G G A A I N SPA F W F V Qshy

AGATCATGGCGCGGCCCTTGGCGGACAGTGCGGTCTCTCAAGGTTGGCAGTAACCAGCAC 301 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 360

TCTAGTACCGCGCCGGGAACCGCCTGTCACGCCAGAGAGTTCCAACCGTCATTGGTCGTG

a R S W R G P W R T V R S L K V G S N Q H b D H G A A L G G Q C G L S R L A V T S T c I MAR P LAD S A V S Q G W Q P A R

GAATTCGATTCATCGCCGCGGATCAAAAGAACTGTTCGCCTGTGCGGCACTCCCTTCTTG 361 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 420

CTTAAGCTAAGTAGCGGCGCCTAGTTTTCTTGACAAGCGGACACGCCGTGAGGGAAGAAC

a E F D S S P R I K R T V R L C G T P F L b N S I H R R G S K E L F A C A ALP S W c I R F I A A D Q K N C S P V R H S L L Gshy

GGCGAGTAGCCGCGCCAAGTGACGCTGTTGCAAGAGATTGCCAAGCGGACGCGGCGTTGC 421 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 480

CCGCTCATCGGCGCGGTTCACTGCGACAACGTTCTCTAACGGTTCGCCTGCGCCGCAACG

a G P R V T L L Q E I A K R T R R C Q b A S R A K R C C K R L P S G R G V A c R A A P S D A V A R D C Q A D A A L Lshy

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

106

TCGATCATCCGCCAGCGCGCCCCAGCTTTCGCGATTGGAGTGCATATTATCGGAGCGCAG 481 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 540

AGCTAGTAGGCGGTCGCGCGGGGTCGAAAGCGCTAACCTCACGTATAATAGCCTCGCGTC

a S I I R Q R A P A F A I G V H I I G A Q b R S S A SAP Q L S R L E C I L S E R S c D H P P A R P S F R D W S A y y R S A Vshy

TGATTGCTCGCGGCTTCGGCAAAGGCAAGGAGAATGTCGCTCAGAACCTTCTCAGGGAAG+ + + + + + 600 541

ACTAACGAGCGCCGAAGCCGTTTCCGTTCCTCTTACAGCGAGTCTTGGAAGAGTCCCTTC

a L L A A S A K A R R M s L R T F S G K b D C S R L R Q R Q G E C R S E P S Q G S c I A R G F G K G K E N v A Q N L L R E A shy

CAATTTCAAGCCTGTTTGAACCAGTAAGTCGACCTTATCCCCGGTGGTCTCGGCGACGAT 601 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 660

GTTAAAGTTCGGACAAACTTGGTCATTCAGCTGGAATAGGGGCCACCAGAGCCGCTGCTA

a Q F Q A C L N Q V D L P G G L G D D b N F K P V T s K S T L p v v S A T I c I S S L F E P v S R P y R w s R R R L shy

TGGCCTACCAGTGGTACGGAAACACAGAAAGGCATTTCATCCGTTGCGGCATGTTCATTC 661 ---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ 720

ACCGGATGGTCACCATGCCTTTGTGTCTTTCCGTAAAGTAGGCAACGCCGTACAAGTAAG

a w P T S G T E T Q K G I s S V A A C S F b G L P V V R K H R K A F H P L R H v H S c A Y Q W Y G N T E R H F I R C G M F I Q shy

AGATTTTCTGACAAACGGTCGCCGCAACCGGACGGAAACCCCCTTCGGCAAGGGACCGGT721 _________ +_________+_________ +_________+_________+_________ + 780

TCTAAAAGACTGTTTGCCAGCGGCGTTGGCCTGCCTTTGGGGGAAGCCGTTCCCTGGCCA

a R F s D K R S p Q P D G N P L R Q G T G b D F L T N G R R N R T E T P F G K G P V c I F Q T V A A T G R K P P S A R D R Cshy

GCTCTTTAATTCGCTTGCA 781 ---------+--------- 799

CGAGAAATTAAGCGAACGT

a A L F A C b L F N S L A c S L I R L

107

p8181 02 p8181 03 and p8181 04 were selected (Fig 47) for further studies The sequences

obtained from the smallest fragment (p8181 04) about 115 kb from the EcoRl end overlapped

with that ofp818103 (about 134 kb from the same end) These two sequences were joined

and used in a BLAST homology search The results are shown in Fig 414 Homology

to TnsD protein (amino acids 338-442) was detected with the translation product from one

of these frames Other proteins with similar levels of homology to that obtained for the TnsD

protein were found but these were in different frames or the opposite strand Homology to the

TnsD protein appeared to be above background The BLAST search of sequences derived

from p818101 and p818102 failed to reveal anything of significance as far as TnsD or TnsE

ofTn7 was concerned (Fig 415 and 416 respectively)

A clearer picture of the rearrangement of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 emerged from the

BLAST search of the combined sequence of p8181 04 and p8181 03 Regions of homology

of the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 to TnsD ofTn7 (depicted with the letters A-G Fig 411)

correspond with increasing distance downstream There are minor intermittent breaks in

homology As discussed earlier the region marked D (Fig 411) between nucleotides 384

and 488 of the TnsD-like protein showed homology to a region further downstream on TnsD

of Tn7 Regions D and E of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein were homologous to an

overlapping region of TnsD of Tn7 The largest gap in homology was found between

nucleotides 712 and 1212 of the Tn5468 TnsD-like protein (Fig 411) Together these results

suggest that the TnsD-like protein of Tn5468 has been rearranged duplicated truncated and

shuffled

108

150

Tn TnsD

311

213 235

0

10

300 450

Tn5468

20 lib 501 56111 bull I I

Aa ~ p E FG

Tn5468 DNA CIIII

til

20 bull0 IID

Fig 411 Rearrangement of the TnsD-like ORF of Tn5468 Regions on protein of

identified the letters are matched unto the corresponding areas on of

Tn7 At the bottom is the map of Tns5468 which indicates the areas where homology to TnsD

of Tn7 was obtained (Note that the on the representing ofTn7 are

whereas numbers on TnsD-like nrnrPln of Tn5468 distances in base

pairs)

284

109

kb

~ p81810 (40kb)

170

116 109

Fig 412 Restriction digests carried out on p8181AE with the following restriction enzymes

1 HindIII 2 EcoRI-ApaI 3 HindllI-ApaI 4 ClaI 5 HindIII-EcoRI 6 ApaI-ClaI 7 EcoRI-

ClaI and 8 ApaI The smaller fragment in lane 7 (arrowed) is the 40 kb insert in the

p81810 construct A PstI marker (first lane) was used for sizing the DNA fragments

l10

4 13 (al BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from 10EM (bl The inverted nucleotide sequence of p81810EM

(al High Proba

producing Pairs Frame Score P (N)

rlS406261S40626 receptor - mouse +2 45 016 IS396361S39636 protein - Escherichia coli ( -1 40 072

ID506241STMVBRAl like [ v +1 63 087 IS406261S40626 - - mouse

48

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 45 (207 bits) Expect 017 Sum P(2l = 016 Identities = 10 5 (40) Positives = 1325 (52) Frame +2

329 GTAQEMVSACGLGDIGSHGDPTA 403 G+A + C GD+GS HG A

ct 24 GSAWAAAAAQCRYGDLGSLHGGSVA 48

Score = 33 (152 bits) Expect = 017 Sum P(2) = 016 Identities = 59 (55) positives 69 (66) Frame +2

29 NPAESGEAW 55 NP + G AW

ct 19 NPLDYGSAW 27

(b)

1 TGGACTTTGG TCCCCTACTG GATGGTCAAA AGTGGCGAAg

51 CCTGGGACTC AGGGCGGTAG CcAAATATCT CCAGGGACGG

101 TGAGATTGCA CGCCTCCCGA CGCGGGTTGA ATGTGCCCTG GAAGCCCTTA

151 GCCGCACGAC ATTCCCGAAC ATTGGTGCCA GACCGGGATG CCATAAGAAT

201 ACGGTGGTTG GACATGCAGC AGAATTACGC TGATTTATCA

251 CTGGCACTCC TGCTACCCAA AGAACACTCA TGGTTGTACC

301 GGGAGTGGCT GGAGCAACAT TCACcAACGG CACTGCACAA GAAATGGTCT

351 GATCAGCGTG TGGACTGGGA GACATTGGAT CGTAGCATGG CGAtCCAACT

401 GCGTAAGGCc GCGCGGGAAA tcAtctTCGG GAGGTTCCGC CACAACGCGt

111

Fig 414 (a) BLAST check on s obta 18104 and p818103 joined Homology to TnsD was

b) The ide and ch homology to TnsD was found

(a)

Reading Prob Pairs Frame Score peN)

IA472831A47283 in - gtgpIL050 -2 57 0011 splP139911 TRANSPOSON TN TRANSPOSITION PR +1 56 028 gplD493991 alpha 2 type I [Orycto -3 42 032 pirlA44950lA44950 merozoite surface ant 2 - P +3 74 033

gtsp1P139911 TRANSPOSON TN7 TRANSPOSITION PROTEIN TNSD IS12640lS12 - Escherichia coli transposon Tn7

gplX176931 4 Transposon Tn7 transposition genes tnsA B C D and E [Escherichia coli]

508

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 56 (258 bits) = 033 Sum p(2) = 028 Identities = 1454 (25) positives = 2454 (44) Frame = +1

Query 319 RVDWETLDRSMAIQLRKAAREITREVPPQRVTQAALERKLGRPLRMSEQQAKLP 480 RVDW DR QL + + + + R T + L ++ +++ KLP

ct 389 RVDWNQRDRIAVRQLLRIIKRLDSSLDHPRATSSWLLKQTPNGTSLAKNLQKLP 442

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 033 Sum P(2) = 028 Identities = 1142 (26) positives = 1942 (45) Frame = +1

Query 169 WLDMQQNYADLSRRRLALLLPKEHSWLYRHTGSGWSNIHQRH 294 W + Y + R +L ++WLYRH + +Q+H

338 WQQLVHKYQGIKAARQSLEGGVLYAWLYRHDRDWLVHWNQQH 379

(b) GAGGAAATCGGAAGGCCTGGCATCGGACGGTGACCTATAATCATTGCCTTGATACCAGGG

10 20 30 40 50 60 E E I G R P GIG R P I I I A LIP G

ACGGTGAGATTGCACGCCTCCCGACGCGGGTTGAATGTGCCCTGGAAGCCCTTGACCGCA 70 80 90 100 110 120

T V R L HAS R R G L N V P W K P L T A

CGACATTCCCGAACATTGGTGCCAGACCGGGATGCCATAAGAATACGGTGGTTGGACATG 130 140 150 160 170 180

R H S R T L V P D R D A I R I R W L D M

CAGCAGAATTACGCTGATTTATCACGTCGGCGACTGGCACTCCTGCTACCCAAAGAACAC 190 200 210 220 230 240

Q Q N Y A D L S R R R L ALL L P K E H

112

TCATGGTTGTACCGCCATACAGGGAGTGGCTGGAGCAACATTCACCAACGGCACTGCACA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S W L Y R H T G S G W S NIH Q R H C T

AGAAATGGTCTGATCCAGCGTGTGGACTGGGAGACATTGGATCGTAGCATGGCGATCCAA 310 320 330 340 350 360

R N G L I Q R V D WET L DRS M A I Q

CTGCGTAAGGCCGCGCGGGAAATCACTCGGGAGGTTCCGCCACAACGCGTTACCCAGGCG 370 380 390 400 410 420

L R K A ARE I T REV P P Q R V T Q A

GCTTTGGAGCGCAAGTTGGGGCGGCCACTCCGGATGTCAGAACAACAGGCAAAACTGCCT 430 440 450 460 470 480

ALE R K L G R P L R M SEQ Q A K L P

AAAAGTATCGGTGTACTTGGCGA 490 500

K S I G V L G

113

Fig 415 (a) Results of the BLAST search on p818102 (b) DNA sequence of p818102

(a)

Reading High Probability Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpirIS29215IS2 +3 57 0991 spIP28880ICXOA-CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpirIB4437 +3 55 0998 gplX775761BNACCG8 1 acetyl-CoA carboxylase [Brassica +2 39 0999 gplX90568 IHSTITIN2B_1 titin gene product [Homo sapiens] +2 43 09995

gtsp1P294241TX25 PHONI NEUROTOXIN TX2-5 gtpir1S292151S29215 neurotoxin Tx2 shyspider (Phoneutria nigriventer) Length = 49

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 57 (262 bits) Expect = 47 P = 099 Identities = 1230 (40) positives = 1430 (46) Frame +3

Query 105 EKGSXVRKSPAPCRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRC 194 E+G V P CRQ N AY L +C

Sbjct 19 ERGECVCGGPCICRQGNFLIAAYKLASCKC 48

splP28880lCXOA CONST OMEGA-CONOTOXIN SVIA gtpir1B443791B44379 omega-conotoxin

SVIA - cone shell (Conus striatus) Length = 24

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 55 (253 bits) Expect = 61 P = 10 Identities = 819 (42) positives = 1119 (57) Frame +3

Query 141 CRQANLPCGAYLLGCSRCW 197 CR + PCG + C RC+

Sbjct 1 CRSSGSPCGVTSICCGRCY 19

(b)

1 GGAGTCCTtG TGATGTTTAA ATTGAGTGAG AAAAGAGCGT ATTCCGGCGA

51 AGTGCCTGAA AATTTGACTC TACACTGGCT GGCCGAATGT CAAACAAGAC

101 GATGGAAAAA GGGTCGCAGG TCCGTAAGTC ACCCGCGCCG TGTCGTCAGG

151 CGAATTTGCC ATGTGGCGCG TACCTATTGG GCTGTTCCCG GTGCTGGCAC

201 TCGGCTATAG CTTCTCCGAC GGTAGATTGC TCCCAATAAC CTACGGCGAA

251 TATTCGGAAG TGATTATTCC CAATTCTGGC GGAAGGAGAG GAAATCAACT

301 CGTCCGACAT TCCGCCGGAA TTATATTCGT TTGGAAGCAA AGCACAGGGG

114

Fig 416 (a) BLAST results of the nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8l0l (b) The nucleotide sequence obtained from p8l8101

(a)

Reading High Prob Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs Frame Score PIN)

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN +2 47 0038 splP031081VL2 CRPVK PROBABLE L2 PROTEIN +3 66 0072 splQ098161YAC2 SCHPO HYPOTHETICAL 339 KD PROTEIN C16C +2 39 069 splP062781AMY BACLI ALPHA-AMYLASE PRECURSOR (EC 321 +2 52 075 spIP26805IGAG=MLVFP GAG POLYPROTEIN (CORE POLYPROTEIN +3 53 077

splP022411HCYD EURCA HEMOCYANIN D CHAIN Length = 627 shyPlus Strand HSPs

Score = 47 (216 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 612 (50) Positives = 912 (75) Frame = +2

Query 140 HFHWYPQHPCFY 175 H+HW+ +P FY

Sbjct 170 HWHWHLVYPAFY 181

Score = 38 (175 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 1236 (33) positives = 1536 (41) Frame +2

Query 41 TPWAGDRRAETQGKRSLAVGFFHFPDIFGSFPHFH 148 T + D E + L VGF +FGSF H

Sbjct 17 TSLSPDPLPEAERDPRLKGVGFLPRGTLFGSFHEEH 52

Score = 32 (147 bits) Expect = 0039 Sum P(3) = 0038 Identities = 721 (33) positives = 1121 (52) Frame = +2

Query 188 DPYFFVPPADFVYPAKSGSGQ 250 D Y FV D+ + G+G+

Sbjct 548 DFYLFVMLTDYEEDSVQGAGE 568

(b)

1 CGTCCGTACC TTCACCTTTC TCGACCGCAA GCAGCCTGAA ACTCCATGGG

51 CAGGAGATCG TCGTGCAGAG ACTCAGGGGA AACGCTCACT TTAGGCGGTG

101 GGGTTTTTCC ACTTCCCCGA TATTTTCGGG TCTTTCCCTC ATTTTCACTG

151 GTACCCGCAG CACCCTTGTT TCTACGCCTG ATAACACGAC CCGTACTTTT

201 TTGTACCACC CGCAGACTTC GTTTACCCGG CAAAAAGTGG TTCTGGTCAA

251 TATCGGCAGG GTGGTGAGAA CACCG

115

417 (al BLAST results obtained from combined sequence of (inverted and complemented) and 1810r good sequence to Ecoli and Hinfluenzae DNA RecG (EC 361) was found (b) The combined sequence and open frame which was homologous to RecG

(a)

Reading High Prob

producing Pairs Frame Score peN)

IP43809IRECG_HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 158 1 3e-14 1290502 (LI0328) DNA recombinase [Escheri +3 156 26e-14 IP24230IRECG_ECOLI ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG +3 156 26e-14 11001580 (D64000) hypothetical [Sy +3 127 56e-10 11150620 (z49988) MmsA [St pneu +3 132 80e-l0

IP438091RECG HAEIN ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IE64139 DNA recombinase (recG) homolog - Ius influenzae (strain Rd KW20) 11008823 (L44641) DNA recombinase

112 1 (U00087) DNA recombinase 11221898 (U32794) DNA recombinase helicase [~~~~

= 693

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 158 (727 bits) Expect = 13e-14 Sum P(2) 13e-14 Identities = 3476 (44) positives = 5076 (65) Frame = +3

3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV 182 F++W +P G G G+ ++R+ E + G++++V+GT +LFQ+ V

Sb 327 EILAEQHANNFRRWFKPFGIEVGWLAGKVKGKSRQAELEKIKTGAVQMVVGTHALFQEEV 386

183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F+ L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 EFSDLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) = 13e-14 Sum P(2) = 13e-14 Identities 916 (56) positives = 1216 (75) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 + G PH L+MTA+PI

416 KAGFYPHQLIMTATPI 431

IP242301 ATP-DEPENDENT DNA HELICASE RECG 1 IJH0265 RecG - Escherichia coli I IS18195 recG protein - Escherichia coli

gtgi142669 (X59550) recG [Escherichia coli] gtgi1147545 (M64367) DNA recombinase

693

116

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 156 (718 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4676 (60) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ F+ W P G G G+ +AR E +A G +++++GT ++FQ+ V

Sbjct327 ELLAEQHANNFRNWFAPLGIEVGWLAGKQKGKARLAQQEAIASGQVQMIVGTHAIFQEQV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F L LVIIDEQHRF

Sbjct 387 QFNGLALVIIDEQHRF 402

Score = 50 (230 bits) Expect = 26e-14 Sum P(2) = 26e-14 Identities 916 (56) Positives = 1316 (81) Frame = +3

Query 261 RRGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 ++G PH L+MTA+PI

Sbjct 416 QQGFHPHQLIMTATPI 431

gtgi11001580 (D64000) hypothetical protein [Synechocystis sp] Length 831

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 127 (584 bits) Expect = 56e-10 Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 3376 (43) positives = 4076 (52) Frame = +3

Query 3 EILAEQLPLAFQQWLEPAGPGGGLSGGQPFTRARRETAETLAGGSLRLVIGTQSLFQQGV E+LAEQ W L G T RRE L+ G L L++GT +L Q+ V

Sbjct464 EVLAEQHYQKLVSWFNLLYLPVELLTGSTKTAKRREIHAQLSTGQLPLLVGTHALIQETV

Query 183 VFACLGLVIIDEQHRF 230 F LGLV+IDEQHRF

Sbjct 524 NFQRLGLVVIDEQHRF 539

Score = 49 (225 bits) Expect = 56e-IO Sum P(2) = 56e-10 Identities = 915 (60) positives = 1215 (80) Frame = +3

Query 264 RGAMPHLLVMTASPI 308 +G PH+L MTA+PI

Sbjct 550 KGNAPHVLSMTATPI 564

(b)

CCGAGATTCTCGCGGAGCAGCTCCCATTGGCGTTCCAGCAATGGCTGGAACCGGCTGGGC 10 20 30 40 50 60

E I L A E Q L P L A F Q Q W L EPA G Pshy

CTGGAGGTGGGCTATCTGGTGGGCAGCCGTTCACCCGTGCCCGTCGCGAGACGGCGGAAA 70 80 90 100 110 120

G G G L S G G Q P F T R A R RET A E Tshy

CGCTTGCTGGTGGCAGCCTGAGGTTGGTAATCGGCACCCAGTCGCTGTTCCAGCAAGGGG 130 140 150 160 170 180

LAG G S L R L V I G T Q S L F Q Q G Vshy

182

386

182

523

117

TGGTGTTTGCATGTCTCGGACTGGTCATCATCGACGAGCAACACCGCTTTTGGCCGTGGA 190 200 210 220 230 240

v F A C L G L V I IDE Q H R F W P W Sshy

GCAGCGCCGTCAATTGCTGGAGAAGGGGCGCCATGCCCCACCTGCTGGTAATGACCGCTA 250 260 270 280 290 300

S A V N C W R R GAM P H L L V M T A Sshy

GCCCGATCATGGTCGAGGACGGCATCACGTCAGGCATTCTTCTGTGCGGTAGGACACCCA

310 320 330 340 350 360 P I M V E D G ITS GIL L C G R T P Nshy

ATCGATTCCTGCCTCAAGCTGGTATCGACGCCGTTGCCTTTCCGGGCGTAGATAAGGACT 370 380 390 400 410 420

R F L P Q A G I D A V A F P G V D K D Yshy

ATGCCGCCCGTGAAAGGGCCGCCAAGCGGGGCCGATGgACGCCGCTGCTAAACGACGCAG 430 440 450 460 470 480

A ARE R A A K R G R W T P L L N D A Gshy

GCATACGTCGAAGCTGGCTTGGTCGAGCAAGCATCGCCTTCGTCCAGCGCAACACTGCTA 490 500 510 520 530 540

I R R S W L G R A S I A F V Q R N T A 1shy

TCGGAGGGCAACTTGAAGAAGGCGGTCGCGCCGCGAGAACCTCCCAGCTTATCCCCGCGA 550 560 570 580 590 600

G G Q LEE G G R A ART S Q LIP A Sshy

GCCATCCGCGAACGGATCGTCAACGCCTGATTCATCGAGACTATCTGCTCTCAAGCACTG 610 620 630 640 650 660

H P R T D R Q R L I H R D Y L L SST Dshy

ACATTGAGCTTTCGATCTATGAGGACCGACTAGAAATTACTTCCAGGCAGATTCAAATGG 670 680 690 700 710 720

I E LSI Y E D R LEI T S R Q I Q M Vshy

TATTACGCGCCGATCGTGACCTGGCCGGTCGACACGAAACCAGCTCATCAAGGATGTTAT

L R 730

A D R 740 750 D LAG R H E

760 T S S

770 S R M

780 L Cshy

GCGCAGCATCC 791

A A S

118

444 Analysis of DNA downstream of region with TnsD homology

The location of the of p81811 ApaI-CLaI construct is shown in Fig 47 The single strand

sequence from the C LaI site was joined to p8181Or and searched using BLAST against the

GenBank and EMBL databases Good homology to Ecoli and Hinjluezae A TP-dependent

DNA helicase recombinase proteins (EC 361) was obtained (Fig 417) The BLAST search

with the sequence from the ApaI end showed high sequence homology to the stringent

response protein guanosine-35-bis (diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphohydrolase (EC 3172) of

Ecoli Hinjluenzae and Scoelicolor (Fig 418) In both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae the two

proteins RecG helicase recombinase and ppGpp stringent response protein constitute part of

the spo operon

445 Spo operon

A brief description will be given on the spo operons of Ecoli and Hinjluenzae which appear

to differ in their arrangements In Ecoli spoT gene encodes guanosine-35-bis

pyrophosphohydrolase (ppGpp) which is synthesized during stringent response to amino acid

starvation It is also known to be responsible for cellular ppGpp degradation (Gentry and

Cashel 1995) The RecG protein is required for normal levels of recombination and DNA

repair RecG protein is a junction specific DNA helicase that acts post-synaptically to drive

branch migration of Holliday junction intermediate made by RecA during the strand

exchange stage of recombination (Whitby and Lloyd 1995)

The spoS (also called rpoZ) encodes the omega subunit of RNA polymerase which is found

associated with core and holoenzyme of RNA polymerase The physiological function of the

omega subunit is unknown Nevertheless it binds stoichiometrically to RNA polymerase

119

Fig 418 BLAST search nucleotide sequence of 1811r I restrict ) inverted and complement high sequence homology to st in s 3 5 1 -bis ( e) 3 I ase (EC 31 7 2) [(ppGpp)shyase] -3-pyropho ase) of Ecoli Hinfluenzae (b) The nucleot and the open frame with n

(a)

Sum Prob

Sequences Pairs Frame Score PIN)

GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 277 25e-31 GUANOSINE-35-BIS(DIPHOSPHATE +2 268 45e-30 csrS gene sp S14) +2 239 5 7e-28 GTP +2 239 51e-26 ppGpp synthetase I [Vibrio sp] +2 239 51e-26 putative ppGpp [Stre +2 233 36e-25 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE (EC 276 +2 230 90e-25 stringent +2 225 45e-24 GTP PYROPHOSPHOKINASE +2 221 1 6e-23

gtsp1P175801SPOT ECOLl GUANOSlNE-35-BlS(DlPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP)ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSlNE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) IB303741SHECGD guanosine 35-bis(diphosphate) 3-pyrophosphatase (EC 3172) -Escherichia coli IM245031ECOSPOT 2 (p)

coli] gtgp1L103281ECOUW82 16(p)~~r~~ coli] shy

702

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 277 (1274 bits) = 25e-31 P 25e-31 Identities = 5382 (64) positives = 6282 (75) Frame +2

14 QASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRF 193 + SGREKH+Y KM K F I D++AFR+IV D DTCYRVLG +HSLY+P PGR

ct 232 RVSGREKHLYSIYCKMVLKEQRFHSlMDlYAFRVIVNDSDTCYRVLGQMHSLYKPRPGRV 291

194 KDYlAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIAIPK+NGYQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 292 KDYIAIPKANGYQSLHTSMIGP 313

gtsp1P438111SPOT HAEIN GUANOSINE-35-BlS(DIPHOSPHATE) 3 (EC 3172) laquoPPGPP) ASE) (PENTA-PHOSPHATE GUANOSINE-3-PYROPHOSPHOHYDROLASE) gtpir1F641391F64139

(spOT) homolog shyIU000871HIU0008 5

[

120

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 268 (1233 bits) Expect = 45e-30 P 45e-30 Identities = 4983 (59) positives 6483 (77) Frame = +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRS IRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRI IVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GREKH+Y+ +KM+ K F I D++AFR+IV +VD CYRVLG +H+LY+P PGR

ct 204 ARVWGREKHLYKIYQKMRIKDQEFHSIMDIYAFRVIVKNVDDCYRVLGQMHNLYKPRPGR

191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 KDYIA+PK+NGYQSL T + GP

264 VKDYIAVPKANGYQSLQTSMIGP 286

gtgp1U223741VSU22374 1 csrS gene sp S14] Length = 119

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) 57e-28 P 57e-28 Identities = 4468 (64) positives 5468 (79) Frame = +2

Query 56 KMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQS KM+ K F I D++AFR++V+D+DTCYRVLG VH+LY+P P R KDYIAIPK+NGYQS

Sbjct 3 KMKNKEQRFHSIMDIYAFRVLVSDLDTCYRVLGQVHNLYKPRPSRMKDYIAIPKANGYQS

Query 236 LHTVLAGP 259 L T L GP

Sbjct 63 LTTSLVGP 70

gtgp1U295801ECU2958 GTP [Escherichia Length 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 239 (1099 bits) = 51e-26 P = 51e-26 Identities 4383 (51) positives 5683 (67) Frame +2

Query 11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK AF ++ D+ A RI+ + CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 247 AEVYGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKNLAFDELFDVRAVRIVAERLQDCYAALGIVHTHYRHLPDE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 307 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 329

2 synthetase I [Vibrio sp] 744

Plus Strand HSPs

Score 239 (1099 bits) Expect = 51e-26 P 51e-26 Identities 4283 (50) positives = 5683 (67) Frame +2

11 AQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPIPGR A+ GR KH+Y RKMQKK F ++ D+ A RI+ ++ CY LG+VH+ YR +P

Sbjct 246 AEVQGRPKHIYSIWRKMQKKSLEFDELFDVRAVRIVAEELQDCYAALGVVHTKYRHLPKE

Query 191 FKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 F DY+A PK NGYQS+HTV+ GP

Sbjct 306 FDDYVANPKPNGYQSIHTVVLGP 328

190

263

235

62

190

306

190

305

121

gtgpIX87267SCAPTRELA 2 putative ppGpp synthetase [Streptomyces coelicolor] Length =-847

Plus Strand HSPs

Score = 233 (1072 bits) Expect = 36e-25 P = 36e-25 Identities = 4486 (51) positives = 5686 (65) Frame = +2

Query 2 RFAAQASGREKHVYRSIRKMQKKGYAFGDIHDLHAFRIIVADVDTCYRVLGLVHSLYRPI 181 R A +GR KH Y +KM +G F +I+DL R++V V CY LG VH+ + P+

Sbjct 330 RIKATVTGRPKHYYSVYQKMIVRGRDFAEIYDLVGIRVLVDTVRDCYAALGTVHARWNPV 389

Query 182 PGRFKDYIAIPKSNGYQSLHTVLAGP 259 PGRFKDYIA+PK N YQSLHT + GP

Sbjct 390 PGRFKDYIAMPKFNMYQSLHTTVIGP 415

(b)

ACGGTTCGCCGCCCAGGCTAGTGGCCGTGAGAAACACGTCTACAGATCTATCAGAAAAAT 10 20 30 40 50 60

R F A A Q A S G R E K H V Y R SIR K M

GCAGAAGAAGGGGTATGCCTTCGGTGACATCCACGACCTCCACGCCTTCCGGATTATTGT 70 80 90 100 110 120

Q K K G Y A F G D I H D L H A F R I I V

TGCTGATGTGGATACCTGCTATCGCGTTCTGGGTCTGGTTCACAGTCTGTATCGACCGAT 130 140 150 160 170 180

A D V D T C Y R V L G L V H SLY R P I

TCCCGGACGTTTCAAAGACTACATCGCCATTCCGAAATCCAATGGATATCAGTCTCTGCA 190 200 210 220 230 240

P G R F K D Y I A I P K S N G Y Q S L H

CACCGTGCTGGCTGGGCCC 250 259

T V LAG P

122

cross-links specifically to B subunit and is immunologically among

(Gentry et at 1991)

SpoU is the only functionally uncharacterized ORF in the spo Its been reponed to

have high amino acid similarity to RNA methylase encoded by tsr of Streptomyces

azureus (Koonin and Rudd 1993) of tsr gene nr~1EgtU the antibiotic thiopeptin

from inhibiting ppGpp during nutritional shift-down in Slividans (Ochi 1989)

putative SpoU rRNA methylase be involved stringent starvation response and

functionally connected to SpoT (Koonin Rudd 1993)

The recG spoT spoU and spoS form the spo operon in both Ecoli and Hinjluenzae

419) The arrangement of genes in the spo operon between two organisms

with respect to where the is located in the operon In spoU is found

between the spoT and the recG genes whereas in Hinjluenzae it is found the spoS

and spoT genes 19) In the case T jerrooxidans the spoT and recG genes are

physically linked but are arranged in opposite orientations to each other Transcription of the

T jerrooxidans recG and genes lIILv(U to be divergent from a common region about 10shy

13 kb the ApaI site (Fig 411) the limited amount of sequence

information available it is not pOsslltgt1e to predict whether spoU or spoS genes are present and

which of the genes constitute an operon

123

bullspaS

as-bullbull[Jy (1)

spoU

10 20 30 0 kb Ecoli

bull 1111111111

10 20 30 0 kb

Hinfluenzae

Apal Clal T ferrooxidans

Fig 419 Comparison of the spo operons of (1) Ecoli and (2) HinJluenzae and the probable

structure of the spo operon of T jerrooxidans (3) Note the size ot the spoU gene in Ecoli as

compared to that of HinJluenzae Areas with bars indicate the respective regions on the both

operons where good homology to T jerrooxidans was observed Arrows indicate the direction

of transcription of the genes in the operon

124

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSIONS

125

CHAPTER 5

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

The objective of this project was to study the region beyond the T ferrooxidans (strain A TCC

33020) unc operon The study was initiated after random sequencing of a T ferrooxidans

cosmid (p818I) harbouring the unc operon (which had already been shown to complement

Ecoli unc mutants) revealed a putative transposase with very high amino acid sequence

homology to Tn7 Secondly nucleotide sequences (about 150 bp) immediately downstream

the T ferrooxidans unc operon had been found to have high amino acid sequence homology

to the Ecoli glmU gene

A piece of DNA (p81852) within the Tn7-like transposon covering a region of 17 kb was

used to prepare a probe which was hybridized to cos mid p8I8I and to chromosomal DNA

from T ferrooxidans (Fig 24) This result confirmed the authenticity of a region of more than

12 kb from the cosmid as being representative of unrearranged T ferrooxidans chromosome

The results from the hybridization experiment showed that only a single copy of this

transposon (Tn5468) exists in the T ferrooxidans chromosome This chromosomal region of

T ferrooxidans strain ATCC 33020 from which the probe was prepared also hybridized to two

other T ferrooxidans strains namely A TCC 19859 and A TCC 23270 (Fig 26) The results

revealed that not only is this region with the Tn7-1ike transposon native to T ferrooxidans

strain A TCC 33020 but appears to be widely distributed amongst T ferrooxidans strains

T ferrooxidans strain A TCC 33020 was isolated from a uranium mine in Japan strain ATCC

23270 from coal drainage water U SA and strain A TCC 19S59 from

therefore the Tn7-like transposon a geographical distribution amongst

strains

On other hand hybridization to two Tthiooxidans strains A TCC 19377

DSM 504 and Ljerrooxidans proved negative (Fig 26) Thus all three

T jerrooxidans strains tested a homologous to Tn7 while the other three

CIUJ of gram-negative bacteria which were and which grow in the same environment

do not The fact that all the bands of the T jerrooxidans strains which hybridized to the

Tn5468 probe were of the same size implies that chromosomal region is highly

conserved within the T jerrooxidans strains

35 kb BamHI-BamHI fragment of of the unc operon was

cloned into pUCBM20 and pUCBM21 vectors (pSI pSlS16r) This piece of DNA

uencea from both directions and found to have one partial open reading frame

(ORPI) and two complete open reading frames ORP3) The partial open reading

1) was found to have very high amino homology to E coli and

B subtilis glmU products and represents about 150 amino the of

the T jerrooxidans GlmU protein The second complete open reading has been

shown to the T jerrooxidans glucosamine synthetase It has high amino acid

homology to purF-type amidotransferases The constructs pSlS16f

complemented glmS mutant (CGSC 5392) as it as

large 1 N-acetyl glucosamine was added to the The

p81820 (102 gene failed to complement the glmS mutant

127

was probably due to a lack of expression in absence of a suitable vector promoter

third reading frame (ORF-3) had shown amino acid sequence homology to

TnsA of Tn7 (Fig 43) The region BamHI-BamHI 35 kb construct n nnll

about 10 kb of the T ferrooxidans chromosome been studied by subcloning and

single sequencing Homology to the in addition to the already

of Tn7 was found within this The TnsD-like ORF appears

to some rearrangement and is almost no longer functional

Homology to the and the antibiotic resistance was not found though a

fragment about 4 kb beyond where homology to found was searched

The search and the antibiotic resistance when it became

apparent that spoT encoding (diphosphate) 3shy

pyrophosphohydrolase 3172 and recG encoding -UVI1VlIlUV1UDNA helicase RecG

(Ee 361) about 15 and 35 kb reS]Jecl[lVe beyond where final

homology to been found These genes were by their high sequence

homology to Ecoli and Hinfuenzae SpoT and RecG proteins 4 and 4 18 Though

these genes are transcribed the same direction and form part of the spo 1 m

and Hinfuenzae in the spoT and the recG genes appear to in

the opposite directions from a common ~~ (Fig 419)

The transposon had been as Tn5468 (before it was known that it is probably nonshy

functional) The degree of similarity and Tn5468 suggests that they

from a common ancestor TerrOl)XllUlIZS only grows in an acidic

128

environment one would predict that Tn5468 has evolved in a very different environment to

Tn7 For example Tn7 acquired antibiotic determinants as accessory genes

which are presumably advantageous to its Ecoli host would not expect the same

antibiotic resistance to confer a selective advantage to T jerrooxidans which is not

exposed to a environment It was disappointing that the TnsD-like protein at distal

end of Tn5468 appears to have been truncated as it might have provided an insight into the

structure of the common ancestor of Tn7 and

The fY beyond T jerrooxidans unc operon has been studied and found to have genetic

arrangement similar to that an Rcoli strain which has had a insertion at auTn7 The

arrangement of genes in such an Ecoli strain is unc_glmU _glmS_Tn7 which is identical to

that of T jerrooxidans unc _glmU (Tn7-1ike) This arrangement must a carry over

from a common ancestor the organisms became exposed to different environmental

conditions and differences m chromosomes were magnified Based on 16Sr RNA

sequence T jerrooxidans and Tthiooxidans are phylogenetic ally very closely related

whereas Ljerrooxidans is distantly related (Lane et al 1992) Presumably7jerrooxidans

and Tthiooxidans originated from a common ancestor If Tn5468 had inserted into the

common ancestor before T jerrooxidans Tthiooxidans diverged one might have expected

Tn5468 to be present in the Tthiooxidans strains examined A plausible reason for the

absence Tn5468 in Tthioooxidans could be that these two organisms diverged

T jerrooxidans acquired Tn5468 the Tn7-like must become

inserted into T jerrooxidans a long time ago the strains with transposon

were isolated from geographical locations as far as the Japan Canada

129

APPENDIX

130

APPENDIX 1

MEDIA

Tryptone 109

Yeast extract 5 g

5g

15 g

water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

109

extract 5 g

5g

Distilled water 1000 ml

Autoclaved

agar + N-acetyl solution (200Jtgml) N-acetyl glucosamine added

autoclaved LA has temp of melted LA had fallen below 45 0c N-acetyl

glucosamine solution was sterilized

APPENDIX 2

BUFFERS AND SOLUTIONS

Plasmid extraction solutions

Solution I

50 mM glucose

25 mM Tris-HCI

10 mM EDTA

1981)

Dissolve to 80 with concentrated HCI Add glucose and

EDTA Dissolve and up to volume with water Sterilize by autoclaving and store at

room temp

Solution II

SDS (25 mv) and NaOH (10 N) Autoclave separately store

at 4 11 weekly by adding 4 ml SDS to 2 ml NaOH Make up to 100 ml with water

3M

g potassium acetate in 70 ml Hp Adjust pH to 48 with glacial acetic acid

Store on the shelf

2

132

89 mM

Glacial acetic acid 89 mM

EDTA 25 mM

TE buffer (pH 8m

Tris 10

EDTA ImM

Dissolve in water and adjust to cone

TE buffer (pH 75)

Tris 10 mM

EDTA 1mM

Dissolve in H20 and adjust to 75 with concentrated Hel Autoclave

in 10 mIlO buffer make up to 100 ml with water Add 200

isopropanol allow to stand overnight at room temperature

133

Plasmid extraction buffer solutions (Nucleobond Kit)

S1

50 mM TrisIHCI 10mM EDTA 100 4g RNase Iml pH 80

Store at 4 degC

S2

200 mM NaOH 1 SDS Strorage room temp

S3

260 M KAc pH 52 Store at room temp

N2

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 900 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 63 store at room

temp

N3

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1150 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to ph 63 store at room

temp

N5

100 mM Tris 15 ethanol and 1000 mM KCI adjusted with H3P04 to pH 85 store at room

temp

Competent cells preparation buffers

Stock solutions

i) TFB-I (100 mM RbCI 50 mM MnCI2) 30mM KOAc 10mM CaCI2 15 glycerol)

For 50 ml

I mM RbCl (Sigma) 50 ml

134

MnC12AH20 (Sigma tetra hydrate ) OA95 g

KOAc (BDH) Analar) O g

750 mM CaC122H20 (Sigma) 067 ml

50 glycerol (BDH analar) 150 ml

Adjust pH to 58 with glacial acetic make up volume with H20 and filter sterilize

ii) TFB-2 (lOmM MOPS pH 70 (with NaOH) 50 ml

1 M RbCl2 (Sigma) 05 ml

750 mM CaCl2 50 ml

50 glycerol (BDH 150 ml

Make up volume with dH20

Southern blotting and Hybridization solutions

20 x SSC

1753g NaCI + 8829 citrate in 800 ml H20

pH adjusted to 70 with 10 N NaOH Distilled water added to 1000 mL

5 x SSC 20X 250 ml

40 g

01 N-Iaurylsarcosine 10 10 ml

002 10 02 ml

5 Elite Milk -

135

Water ml

Microwave to about and stir to Make fresh

Buffer 1

Maleic 116 g

NaCI 879

H20 to 1 litre

pH to cone NaOH (plusmn 20 mI) Autoclave

Wash

Tween 20 10

Buffer 1 1990

Buffer

Elite powder 80 g

1 1900 ml

1930 Atl

197 ml

1 M MgCl2 1oo0Ltl

to 10 with cone 15 Ltl)

136

Washes

20 x sse 10 SDS

A (2 x sse 01 SDS) 100 ml 10 ml

B (01 x sse 01 SDS) 05 ml 10 ml

Both A and B made up to a total of 100 ml with water

Stop Buffer

Bromophenol Blue 025 g

Xylene cyanol 025 g

FicoU type 400 150 g

Dissolve in 100ml water Keep at room temp

Ethidium bromide

A stock solution of 10 mgml was prepared by dissolving 01 g in 10 ml of water Shaken

vigorously to dissolve and stored at room temp in a light proof bottle

Ampicillin (100 mgmn

Dissolve 2 g in 20 ml water Filter sterilize and store aliquots at 4degC

Photography of gels

Photos of gels were taken on a short wave Ultra violet (UV) transilluminator using Polaroid

camera Long wave transilluminator was used for DNA elution and excision

Preparation of agarose gels

Unless otherwise stated gels were 08 (mv) type II low

osmotic agarose (sigma) in 1 x Solution is heated in microwave oven until

agarose is completely dissolved It is then cooled to 45degC and prepared into a

IPTG (Isopropyl-~-D- Thio-galactopyronoside)

Prepare a 100 mM

X-gal (5-Bromo-4-chloro-3

Dissolve 25 mg in 1 To prepare dissolve 500 l(l

IPTG and 500 Atl in 500 ml sterilized about temp

by

sterilize

138

GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE OF STRAINS OF BACTERIA USED

Ecoli JMIOS

GENOTYPE endAI thi sbcB I hsdR4 ll(lac-proAB)

ladqZAMlS)

PHENOTYPE thi- strR lac-

Reference Gene 33

Ecoli JMI09

GENOTYPES endAI gyrA96 thi hsdR17(rK_mKJ relAI

(FtraD36 proAB S)

PHENOTYPE thi- lac- proshy

Jj

Ecoli

Thr-l ara- leuB6 DE (gpt-proA) lacYI tsx-33 qsr (AS) gaK2 LAM- racshy

0 hisG4 (OC) rjbDI mglSl rspL31 (Str) kdgKSl xyIAS mtl-I glmSl (OC) thi-l

Webserver

139

APPENDIX 4

STANDARD TECNIQUES

Innoculate from plus antibiotic 100

Grow OIN at 37

Harvest cells Room

Resuspend cell pellet 4 ml 5 L

Add 4 ml 52 mix by inversion at room temp for 5 mins

Add 4 ml 53 Mix by to homogenous suspension

Spin at 15 K 40 mins at 4

remove to fresh tube

Equilibrate column with 2 ml N2

Load supernatant 2 to 4 ml amounts

Wash column 2 X 4 of N3 Elute the DNA the first bed

each) add 07

volumes of isopropanol

Spin at 4 Wash with 70 Ethanol Resuspended pellet in n rv 100 AU of TE and scan

volume of about 8 to 10 drops) To the eluent (two

to

140

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Alf-express Cy5 end labelled promer method

only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli

The label is sensitive to light do all with fluorescent lights off

3-5 kb

3-7 kb

7-10 kb

Thaw all reagents from kit at well before use and keep on

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 Jtl of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice with off using 12 ml Eppendorf DNA up to

125 lll with MilliQ water

Add 1 ltl

Add lll of lOX

polymeraseAdd 1 ltl

Mix well Aliquot 38 lll from the eppendorf to Spin down

Push caps on nrnnp1

141

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93degC for 30 sees

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycle 93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s

70degC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be min 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is to be

omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running Spin down Load 3 U)

SEQUITHERM CYCLE SEQUENCING

Ordinary method

Use only DNA transformed into end- Ecoli strain

3-5 kb 3J

3-7 kb 44

7-10 kb 6J

Thaw all reagents from kit at RT mix well before use and keep on ice

1) Label 200 PCR tubes on side or little cap flap

(The heated lid removes markings from the top of the tubes)

2) Add 3 AU of termination mixes to labelled tubes

3) On ice using l2 ml Eppendorf tubes make DNA up to 125 41 with MilliQ water

142

Add I Jtl of Primer

Add 25 ttl of lOX sequencing buffer

Add 1 Jtl Sequitherm DNA polymerase

Mix well spin Aliquot 38 ttl from the eppendorf to each termination tube Spin down

Push caps on properly

Hybaid thermal Cycler

Program

93 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

93 DC for 30 secs

55 DC for 30 secs

70 DC for 60 secs 30 cycles

93 DC_ 30s 55 DC-30s 70 DC for 5 mins 1 cycle

Primer must be minimum of 20 bp long and min 50 GC content if the annealing step is

to be omitted Incubate at 95 DC for 5 mins to denature before running

Spin down Load 3 ttl for short and medium gels 21t1 for long gel runs

143

REFERENCES

144

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