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Ralstonia metallidurans CH34 RpoN sigma factor and the control of nitrogen metabolism and biphenyl utilization

Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Université Joseph Fourier, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex-9, France¹
Laboratoire de Génétique des Prokaryotes, Université Libre de Bruxelles, IBBM 12, rue de Pr R. Jeneer et J. Brachet, 6041 Gosselies, Belgium²
Department of Genetics, The John Innes Centre, Norwich NR4 7UH, UK³

Author for correspondence: Sébastien Mouz. Tel: +33 4 76 88 92 10. e-mail: sebastien.mouz{at}ibs.fr

Ralstonia metallidurans CH34 can use biphenyl as carbon and energy source when provided with the catabolic transposon Tn4371. Previous results suggested that this property was dependent on the RNA polymerase subunit ⁵⁴. The authors sequenced the CH34 rpoN gene and flanking DNA and isolated a CH34 rpoN-deficient strain. Analysis of the sequence revealed a set of features conserved in all rpoN genes and flanking DNA regions previously analysed in other bacterial species. Nevertheless, despite this conservation, CH34 differed even from the closely related strain R. eutropha H16 by one particular ORF. The rpoN null mutation did not affect expression of the Tn4371 bph operon although it did alter the ability of the Tn4371 host strain to grow on biphenyl. The CH34 rpoN mutant had lost the capacity for autotrophic growth and for responding to poor nitrogen sources by a decrease in urease and proline oxidase activity. CH34 RNA polymerase ⁵⁴ thus positively controls autotrophy as well as nitrogen metabolism but only indirectly affects Tn4371-directed biphenyl utilization.

Keywords: sigma-54, rpoN mutant, bph genes, Tn4371

Abbreviations: BP, biphenyl

The GenBank accession number for the sequence determined in this work is AJ131690.

^a Present address: Institut de Biologie Structurale J. P. Ebel, Laboratoire d’Ingéniérie des Macromolécules, 41, Rue Jules Horowitz, 38027 Grenoble Cedex 1, France.