title: Opine transport genes in the octopine (occ) and nopaline (noc) catabolic regions in Ti plasmids of Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
abstract: The occ and noc regions of octopine and nopaline Ti plasmids in Agrobacterium tumefaciens are responsible for the catabolic utilization of octopine and nopaline, respectively. Opine-inducible promoters, genes for regulatory proteins and for catabolic enzymes, had been identified in previous work. However, both regions contained additional DNA stretches which were under the control of opine-inducible promoters, but the functions were unknown. We investigated these stretches by DNA sequence and functional analyses. The sequences showed that both of the catabolic regions contain a set of four genes which are transcribed in the same direction. The occ and noc region genes are related, but the arrangement of the genes is different. The deduced polypeptides are related to those of binding protein-dependent transport systems of basic amino acids in other bacteria. The comparison suggested that three of the polypeptides are located in the membrane and that one is a periplasmic protein. We constructed cassettes which contained either the putative transport genes only or the complete occ or noc region; all constructs, however, included the elements necessary for opine-induced expression of the genes (the regulatory gene and the inducible promoters). Uptake studies with 3H-labelled octopine showed that the putative transport genes in the occ region code for octopine uptake proteins. The corresponding studies with 3H-labelled nopaline and the noc region cassettes indicated that the uptake of nopaline requires the putative transport genes and additional functions from the left part of the noc region.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie II, Universität Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zanker
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: von Lintig
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schröder
mesh_terms: D016960:Agrobacterium tumefaciens / Q000235:genetics*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D001120:Arginine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D001693:Biological Transport, Active / Q000235:genetics; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*; D016364:Reading Frames; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D002352:Carrier Proteins; C008666:nopaline; C005394:octopine; D001120:Arginine