title: Reversible ADP-ribosylation is demonstrated to be a regulatory mechanism in prokaryotes by heterologous expression.
abstract: The primary product of biological nitrogen fixation, ammonia, reversibly regulates nitrogenase activity in a variety of diazotrophs by a process called "NH4(+)-switch-off/on." Strong correlative evidence from work in Azospirillum lipoferum and Rhodospirillum rubrum indicates that this regulation involves both the inactivation of dinitrogenase reductase by dinitrogenase reductase ADP-ribosyltransferase and the reactivation by dinitrogenase reductase activating glycohydrolase. The genes encoding these two enzymes, draT and draG, have been cloned from these two organisms, so that direct genetic evidence can be marshaled to test this model in vivo. The draT/G system has been transferred to and monitored in the enteric nitrogen-fixing bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae, an organism normally devoid of such a regulatory mechanism. The expressed draT and draG genes allowed K. pneumoniae to respond to NH4Cl with a reversible regulation of nitrogenase activity that was correlated with the reversible ADP-ribosylation of dinitrogenase reductase in vivo. Thus, the expression of draT and draG genes in K. pneumoniae is necessary and sufficient to support NH4(+)-switch-off/on, and ADP-ribosylation serves as a reversible regulatory mechanism for controlling nitrogenase activity in prokaryotes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Burris
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D036002:ADP Ribose Transferases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D000246:Adenosine Diphosphate Ribose / Q000378:metabolism*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D015870:Gene Expression; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D009699:N-Glycosyl Hydrolases; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012247:Rhodospirillum rubrum / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000246:Adenosine Diphosphate Ribose; D036002:ADP Ribose Transferases; C057637:dinitrogenase reductase ADP-ribosyltransferase; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases; D009699:N-Glycosyl Hydrolases; C036091:ADP-ribosyl-(dinitrogen reductase) hydrolase