NahY, a catabolic plasmid-encoded receptor required for chemotaxis of Pseudomonas putida to the aromatic hydrocarbon naphthalene.
Pseudomonas putida G7 exhibits chemotaxis to naphthalene, but the molecular basis for this was not known. A new gene, nahY, was found to be cotranscribed with meta cleavage pathway genes on the NAH7 catabolic plasmid for naphthalene degradation. The nahY gene encodes a 538-amino-acid protein with a membrane topology and a C-terminal region that resemble those of chemotaxis transducer proteins. A P. putida G7 nahY mutant grew on naphthalene but was not chemotactic to this aromatic hydrocarbon. The protein NahY thus appears to function as a chemoreceptor for naphthalene or a related compound. The presence of nahY on a catabolic plasmid implies that chemotaxis may facilitate biodegradation.
D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002628:Chemoreceptor Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D002633:Chemotaxis; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D008745:Methylation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009281:Naphthalenes / Q000378:metabolism; D009876:Operon; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*; D016958:Pseudomonas putida / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid