ISSN:
1365-2958
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
The psychrotrophic bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica is characterized by temperature-dependent adaptations. To investigate Y. enterocolitica genes involved in cold adaptation, a mutant restricted in its ability to grow at 5°C was isolated from a transposon mutant library. The transposon insertion site in this psychrotrophy-defective (PD) mutant mapped 16 bp upstream of an open reading frame whose predicted amino acid sequence showed 93% similarity with the Escherichia coli exoribonuclease polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase), encoded by pnp. Expression of this gene was blocked in the PD mutant. However, the introduction of a second copy of pnp, including 0.33 kbp sequences upstream of its coding region, into the chromosome of the PD mutant restored pnp expression as well as the ability to grow at 5°C. Furthermore, the expression of pnp appeared to be temperature dependent: in the parental Y. enterocolitica strain, the levels of both pnp mRNA and PNPase were 1.6-fold higher at 5°C compared with 30°C. A similarly enhanced level of PNPase at 5°C was observed in the merodiploid recombinant strain, which indicates that the 0.33 kbp region upstream of pnp harboured a cold-inducible promoter. A putative cold shock promoter motif (ATTGG) was observed in this region.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2958.1998.00816.x
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