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Teichuronic acid operon of Bacillus subtilis 168.
Journal article

Teichuronic acid operon of Bacillus subtilis 168.

  • 1999-02-27
Published in:
  • Molecular microbiology. - 1999
Acetylgalactosamine
Acetylglucosamine
Bacillus subtilis
Base Sequence
Cell Wall
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Genes, Bacterial
Models, Biological
Molecular Sequence Data
Muramic Acids
Mutagenesis
N-Acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine Amidase
Operon
Phosphates
Plasmids
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Time Factors
Uronic Acids
beta-Galactosidase
English Sequence analysis reveals that the Bacillus subtilis 168 tuaABCDEFGH operon encodes enzymes required for the polymerization of teichuronic acid as well as for the synthesis of one of its precursors, the UDP-glucuronate. Mutants deficient in any of the tua genes, grown in batch cultures under conditions of phosphate limitation, were characterized by reduced amounts of uronate in their cell walls. The teichuronic acid operon belongs to the Pho regulon, as phosphate limitation induces its transcription. Placing the tuaABCDEFGH operon under the control of the inducible Pspac promoter allowed its constitutive expression independently of the phosphate concentration in the medium; the level of uronic acid in cell walls was dependent on the concentration of the inducer. Apparently, owing to an interdependence between teichoic and teichuronic acid incorporation into the cell wall, in examined growth conditions, the balance between the two polymers is maintained in order to insure a constant level of the wall negative charge.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/277775
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