title: Ribulokinase and transcriptional regulation of arabinose metabolism in Clostridium acetobutylicum.
abstract: The transcription factor AraR controls utilization of L-arabinose in Bacillus subtilis. In this study, we combined a comparative genomic reconstruction of AraR regulons in nine Clostridium species with detailed experimental characterization of AraR-mediated regulation in Clostridium acetobutylicum. Based on the reconstructed AraR regulons, a novel ribulokinase, AraK, present in all analyzed Clostridium species was identified, which was a nonorthologous replacement of previously characterized ribulokinases. The predicted function of the araK gene was confirmed by inactivation of the araK gene in C. acetobutylicum and biochemical assays using purified recombinant AraK. In addition to the genes involved in arabinose utilization and arabinoside degradation, extension of the AraR regulon to the pentose phosphate pathway genes in several Clostridium species was revealed. The predicted AraR-binding sites in the C. acetobutylicum genome and the negative effect of L-arabinose on DNA-regulator complex formation were verified by in vitro binding assays. The predicted AraR-controlled genes in C. acetobutylicum were experimentally validated by testing gene expression patterns in both wild-type and araR-inactivated mutant strains during growth in the absence or presence of L-arabinose.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Semen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Leyn
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Weihong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Dmitry A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rodionov
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D001089:Arabinose / Q000378:metabolism*; D046969:Clostridium acetobutylicum / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D055786:Gene Knockout Techniques; D017853:Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor) / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018085:Regulon; D017385:Sequence Homology; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D001089:Arabinose; D017853:Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor); C022550:ribulokinase