title: Arginine boxes and the argR gene in Streptomyces clavuligerus: evidence for a clear regulation of the arginine pathway.
abstract: The argR gene of Streptomyces clavuligerus has been located in the upstream region of argG. It encodes a protein of 160 amino acids with a deduced M(r) of 17117 for the monomer. Transformants containing the amplified argR gene showed lower activity (50%) of the biosynthetic ornithine carbamoyltransferase (OTC) activity and higher levels (380%) of the catabolic ornithine aminotransferase (OAT) activity than control strains. Amplification of an arginine (ARG) box-containing sequence results in a 2- to 2.5-fold derepression of ornithine acetyltransferase and OTC, suggesting that the repressor is titrated out. Footprinting experiments using the pure homologous arginine repressor (AhrC) of B. subtilis showed a protected 38 nt region (ARG box) in the coding strand upstream of argC. The protected region contained two tandemly repeated imperfect palindromic 18-nt ARG boxes. The repressor-operator interaction was confirmed by bandshift experiments of the DNA fragment containing the protected region. By computer analysis of the Streptomyces sequences available in the databases, a consensus ARG box has been deduced for the genus Streptomyces. This is the first example of a clear regulation of an amino acid biosynthetic pathway in Streptomyces species, challenging the belief that actinomycetes do not have a well-developed regulatory system of these pathways.
authors.affiliation: Area of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of León, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-García
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ludovice
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liras
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001120:Arginine / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013302:Streptomyces / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C087018:ArgR protein, Bacteria; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D001120:Arginine