This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplemental material
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kawaguchi, H.
Right arrow Articles by Yukawa, H.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kawaguchi, H.
Right arrow Articles by Yukawa, H.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Kawaguchi, H.
Right arrow Articles by Yukawa, H.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2009, p. 3419-3429, Vol. 75, No. 11
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02912-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification and Functional Analysis of the Gene Cluster for L-Arabinose Utilization in Corynebacterium glutamicum{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Hideo Kawaguchi,{ddagger} Miho Sasaki,{ddagger} Alain A. Vertès, Masayuki Inui, and Hideaki Yukawa*

Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, 9-2 Kizugawadai, Kizugawa-shi, Kyoto 619-0292, Japan

Received 21 December 2008/ Accepted 26 March 2009

Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 31831 grew on L-arabinose as the sole carbon source at a specific growth rate that was twice that on D-glucose. The gene cluster responsible for L-arabinose utilization comprised a six-cistron transcriptional unit with a total length of 7.8 kb. Three L-arabinose-catabolizing genes, araA (encoding L-arabinose isomerase), araB (L-ribulokinase), and araD (L-ribulose-5-phosphate 4-epimerase), comprised the araBDA operon, upstream of which three other genes, araR (LacI-type transcriptional regulator), araE (L-arabinose transporter), and galM (putative aldose 1-epimerase), were present in the opposite direction. Inactivation of the araA, araB, or araD gene eliminated growth on L-arabinose, and each of the gene products was functionally homologous to its Escherichia coli counterpart. Moreover, compared to the wild-type strain, an araE disruptant exhibited a >80% decrease in the growth rate at a lower concentration of L-arabinose (3.6 g liter–1) but not at a higher concentration of L-arabinose (40 g liter–1). The expression of the araBDA operon and the araE gene was L-arabinose inducible and negatively regulated by the transcriptional regulator AraR. Disruption of araR eliminated the repression in the absence of L-arabinose. Expression of the regulon was not repressed by D-glucose, and simultaneous utilization of L-arabinose and D-glucose was observed in aerobically growing wild-type and araR deletion mutant cells. The regulatory mechanism of the L-arabinose regulon is, therefore, distinct from the carbon catabolite repression mechanism in other bacteria.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, 9-2 Kizugawadai, Kizugawa-shi, Kyoto 619-0292, Japan. Phone: 81-774-75-2308. Fax: 81-774-72-2321. E-mail: mmg-lab{at}rite.or.jp

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 3 April 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

{ddagger} H.K. and M.S. contributed equally to this work.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2009, p. 3419-3429, Vol. 75, No. 11
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02912-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»