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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2005, p. 1850-1855, Vol. 71, No. 4
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.4.1850-1855.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Biotinylation Facilitates the Uptake of Large Peptides by Escherichia coli and Other Gram-Negative Bacteria

Jennifer R. Walker¹ and Elliot Altman^2*

Department of Microbiology,¹ Center for Molecular BioEngineering, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia²

Received 16 January 2004/ Accepted 27 October 2004

Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli can normally only take up small peptides less than 650 Da, or five to six amino acids, in size. We have found that biotinylated peptides up to 31 amino acids in length can be taken up by E. coli and that uptake is dependent on the biotin transporter. Uptake could be competitively inhibited by free biotin or avidin and blocked by the protonophore carbonyl m-chlorophenylhydrazone and was abolished in E. coli mutants that lacked the biotin transporter. Biotinylated peptides could be used to supplement the growth of a biotin auxotroph, and the transported peptides were shown to be localized to the cytoplasm in cell fractionation experiments. The uptake of biotinylated peptides was also demonstrated for two other gram-negative bacteria, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This finding may make it possible to create new peptide antibiotics that can be used against gram-negative pathogens. Researchers have used various moieties to cause the illicit transport of compounds in bacteria, and this study demonstrates the illicit transport of the largest known compound to date.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Center for Molecular BioEngineering, Department of Biological and Agricultural, Driftmier Building, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Phone: (706) 542-2900. Fax: (706) 542-8806. E-mail: ealtman{at}uga.edu.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2005, p. 1850-1855, Vol. 71, No. 4
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.4.1850-1855.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Hebbeln, P., Rodionov, D. A., Alfandega, A., Eitinger, T. (2007). Biotin uptake in prokaryotes by solute transporters with an optional ATP-binding cassette-containing module. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104: 2909-2914 [Abstract] [Full Text]