title: ArgR and AhrC are both required for regulation of arginine metabolism in Lactococcus lactis.
abstract: The DNA binding proteins ArgR and AhrC are essential for regulation of arginine metabolism in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, respectively. A unique property of these regulators is that they form hexameric protein complexes, mediating repression of arginine biosynthetic pathways as well as activation of arginine catabolic pathways. The gltS-argE operon of Lactococcus lactis encodes a putative glutamate or arginine transport protein and acetylornithine deacetylase, which catalyzes an important step in the arginine biosynthesis pathway. By random integration knockout screening we found that derepression mutants had ISS1 integrations in, among others, argR and ahrC. Single as well as double regulator deletion mutants were constructed from Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris MG1363. The three arginine biosynthetic operons argCJDBF, argGH, and gltS-argE were shown to be repressed by the products of argR and ahrC. Furthermore, the arginine catabolic arcABD1C1C2TD2 operon was activated by the product of ahrC but not by that of argR. Expression from the promoter of the argCJDBF operon reached similar levels in the single mutants and in the double mutant, suggesting that the regulators are interdependent and not able to complement each other. At the same time they also appear to have different functions, as only AhrC is involved in activation of arginine catabolism. This is the first study where two homologous arginine regulators are shown to be involved in arginine regulation in a prokaryote, representing an unusual mechanism of regulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, 9751 NN Haren, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rasmus
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.forename: Girbe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buist
authors.forename: Oscar P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Kuipers
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kok
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001120:Arginine / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D013294:Lactococcus lactis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009876:Operon; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C120339:AhrC protein, Bacillus subtilis; C087018:ArgR protein, Bacteria; C490177:ArgR protein, E coli; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; D001120:Arginine