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J L Ingraham

Publications and source records attributed to J L Ingraham.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Infection of Salmonella typhimurium with coliphage Mu d1 (Apr lac): construction of pyr::lac gene fusions.

A procedure was developed for introducing the coliphage Mu d1 (Apr lac) into Salmonella typhimurium in order to construct gene fusions that place the structural genes of the lac operon under the control of the promoter-regulatory region of other genes. To introduce Mu d1 from Escherichia coli K-12 into S. typhimurium, which is normally not a host for Mu, we first constructed an E. coli double lysogen carrying the defective Mu d1 phage and a Mu-P1 hybrid helper phage (MuhP1) that confers the P1 host range. A lysate prepared from this strain was used to infect a P1-sensitive (i.e., galE), restriction-deficient, modification-proficient strain of S. typhimurium, and a double lysogen carrying Mu d1 and MuhP1 was isolated. Induction of the latter strain produced lysates capable of infecting and generating gene fusions in P1-sensitive strains of S. typhimurium. In this paper we describe the construction of pyr::lac fusions by this technique.

Bacteriophage mu↗
PubMed1980

The tetracycline-resistance transposon Tn10 inhibits translocation of Tn10.

Using a set of overlapping deletion mutants in the tetracycline-resistance transposon Tn10, it has been established that certain regions of the Tn10 genome exert a powerful inhibition on translocation of an intact Tn10 element into the bacterial genome. Such inhibition is strongly temperature dependent: at 37 degrees C translocation is inhibited by at least a factor of 100; no inhibition of translocation is detected at 30 degrees C.

Chromosome Deletion↗
PubMed1980

The assimilatory and dissimilatory nitrate reductases of Pseudomonas aeruginosa are encoded by different genes.

The phenotypes of certain mutant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were reported to be pleiotropic for nitrate reduction; these strains were selected for their inability to dissimilate nitrate and were found also to have lost the ability to assimilate nitrate. We now report that the isolation procedure selected two mutations, one in genes encoding the synthesis of dissimilatory nitrate reductase (narA, narB or narE) and another in one of the genes (nas) encoding the synthesis of assimilatory nitrate reductase. Thus in P. aeruginosa dissimilatory and assimilatory nitrate reductases are genetically distinct. However, a loss of both enzymes is necessary to prevent slow dissimilatory growth on nitrate. Assimilatory nitrate reductase requires molybdenum to function, as does dissimilatory nitrate reductase. Lesions in narD affect incorporation of molybdenum into both enzymes, and hence exert a pleiotropic effect.

Genes↗
PubMed1979

Isolation and analysis of mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa unable to assimilate nitrate.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa can reduce nitrate to nitrite and evenutally to nitrogen gas by the denitrification pathway, thereby providing the organism with a mode of respiration and ATP generation in the absence of oxygen. P. aeruginosa can also reduce nitrate to nitrite through an assimilatory pathway that provides the cell with reduced nitrogen for biosyntheses. In order to establish whether this organism synthesizes a single nitrate reductase protein that functions in both pathways, or produces one for each pathway, we isolated mutants blocked in the assimilation of nitrate. These mutants are unaffected in the reduction of nitrate be the denitrification pathway, although they produce low or undectable levels of assimilatory nitrate reductase. On the basis of transductional analysis, the mutations were found to be distributed among four genes designated nasA, nasB, nasC, and nasD. Shifting a nasA mutant from anaerobic to aerobic growth eliminated the culture's ability to reduce nitrate, i.e. the anaerobic nitrate reductase cannot function in the presence of oxygen. Thus P. aeruginosa can synthesize two distinct proteins which reduce nitrate to nitrite: an assimilatory nitrate reductase and a dissimilatory nitrate reductase. If conditions of growth are fully aerobic, the latter is not synthesized and does not function. The former, synthesized under the control of at least four genes, is repressed by readily available nitrogen sources.

Aerobiosis↗
PubMed1978

Arginine auxotrophic phenotype of mutation in pyrA of Salmonella typhimurium: role of N-acetylornithine in the maturation of mutant carbamylphosphate synthetase.

Mutations in pyrA that abolish catalytic activity of carbamylphosphate synthetase cause auxotrophy for both arginine and a pyrimidine. Eight pyrA mutants auxotrophic only for arginine (AUX) were isolated by the mutagenized phage technique; three of these required arginine only at low temperature (20 degrees C). Explanations of the AUX phenotype based on bradytrophy were eliminated by the discovery that blocking the utilization of carbamylphosphate for pyrimidine biosynthesis by insertion of an additional mutation in pyrB (encoding aspartic transcarbamylase) did not reduce the requirement for arginine. In contrast, mutational blocks in the arginine biosynthetic pathway before N-acetylornithine (argB, argC, argG, or argH) did suppress the mutation in pyrA. This suggests that exogenous arginine permits growth of the AUX mutants by inhibiting the first step in the arginine pathway, thereby preventing accumulation of an intermediate that antagonizes mutant pyrA function. A mutation in argA (N-acetylornithinase) failed to suppress AUX, indicating that N-acetylornithine was the inhibitory intermediate. This intermediate had no effect on the catalytic or regulatory properties of carbamylphosphate synthetase from mutant cells grown under permissive conditions (37 degrees C). However, the regulatory properties of carbamylphosphate synthetase synthesized under restrictive conditions (20 degrees C) were demonstrably defective (insensitive to activation by ornithine); the enzyme synthesized under permissive conditions was activated by ornithine. A strain carrying an additional mutation (argC), which prevents the accumulation of N-acetylornithine, produced an ornithine-activatable enzyme at both growth temperatures. These results suggest that N-acetylornithine antagonizes the proper preconditioning or maturation of the mutant carbamylphosphate synthetase.

Arginine↗
PubMed1976

Pyrimidine ribonucleoside monophosphokinase and the mode of RNA turnover in Bacillus subtilis.

A protein catalyzing the phosphorylation of CMP to CDP was purified and characterized. Kinase activity for UMP copurified during ammonium sulfate fractionation, DEAE-cellulose and hydroxylapatite chromatography, and gel filtration on Sephadex G-75, the ratios of activities for the two substrates remaining constant. The purified product, possessing both activities was homogeneous as judged by the single band following polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The protein showed no kinase activity against purine nucleoside monophosphates or the other pyrimidine nucleoside monophosphates: dCMP, dUMP, and dTMP. Thus unlike the enteric bacteria, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium which have distinct enzymes which phosphorylate UMP and CMP, Bacillus subtilis produces a single pyrimidine ribonucleoside monophosphokinase. The Km values of this enzyme from B.subtilis are 0.04 and 0.25 mM for CMP and UMP, respectively, and 0.04 and 0.4 mM for ATP at saturating concentrations of CMP and UMP, respectively. The properties of this enzyme and the differences between enteric bacteria and B.subtilis with respect to the enzymes which phosphorylate CMP are consistent with the measurements which indicate that turnover of messenger RNA is largely hydrolytic in E.coli but largely phosphorolytic in B.subtilis.

Bacillus subtilis↗
PubMed1976

Arginine-sensitive phenotype of mutations in pyrA of Salmonella typhimurium: role of ornithine carbamyltransferase in the assembly of mutant carbamylphosphate synthetase.

The phenotype of certain mutations in pyrA, the gene encoding carbamylphosphate synthetase (CPSase), is expressed only in the presence od exogenous arginine. In unsupplemented media, synthesis of carbamylphosphate and growth was almost normal; in arginine-containing media, synthesis of carbamylphosphate stopped, as did growth, as a consequence of starvation for pyrimidine. Genetic and biochemical evidence suggests that arginine exerts this inhibition by repressing the synthesis of ornithine carbamyltransferase (OTCase), the intracellular presence of which is required for assembly of the unequal subunits and proper functioning of the mutant CPSase. After the addition of arginine to a culture of the mutant, CPSase activity (glutamine dependent) characteristic of the intact holoenzyme progressively decreased, whereas activity (ammonia dependent) characteristic of the free large (alpha) subunit increased. Extracts of mutant cells contain free small (beta) subunits, as demonstrated directly by in vitro complementation using purified alpha subunits from wild type. The mutant enzyme from cultures grown in the presence of arginine had a markedly decreased affinity for adenosine 5'-triphosphate. Mutations in argR that cause depressed synthesis of OTCase suppressed the phenotype, and a certain mutation in argI, the gene encoding OTCase, enhanced it. In vitro experiments using purified enzyme confirm the stimulatory effect of OTCase on the activity of mutant CPSase.

Arginine↗
PubMed1975

Carbamylphosphate synthetase from Salmonella typhimurium. Regulations, subunit composition, and function of the subunits.

Carbamylphosphate synthetase was purified to homogeneity from a derepressed strain of Salmonella typhimurium by a procedure based on affinity chromatography employing immobilized glutamine. The enzyme catalyzes the synthesis of carbamylphosphate from either ammonia or glutamine together with ATP and bicarbonate. The ATP saturation curve of either nitrogen donor is sigmoidal (n equals 1.5) but the affinity for ATP is higher with ammonia. In addition to the feedback inhibition by UMP and activation by ornithine which we previously reported (1), the activity was found to be stimulated by IMP and phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate. Evidence from pool measurements in enteric bacteria by others suggests that of the latter two compounds only phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate is physiologically significant. All effectors regulate enzyme activity by altering its affinity for ATP. Glutamine also modulates the affinity for ATP; it is increased as glutamine concentratiions decrease, an effect that could serve to insulate the cell against major changes in carbamylphosphate synthesis in response to fluctuations in concentration of glutamine. The molecular weight of the holoenzyme was estimated to be 150,000 by sucrose density gradient centrifugation in triethanolamine and Tris-acetate buffers in which the enzyme is a monomer. In the presence of ornithine in potassium phosphate buffer, the enzyme is an oligomer with a molecular weight of 580,000. This transition has been exploited as an alternate route of purifying the enzyme to homogeneity using successive sucrose density centrifugation. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the enzyme in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate shows that the enzyme consists of two unequal subunits with molecular weights of 110,000 and 45,000. The two subunits were separated by gel filtration in the presence of 1 M potassium thiocyanate, ATP, MgCl2, glutamine, NH4Cl, ornithine, and UMP. The heavy subunit catalyzes the synthesis of carbamylphosphate from ammonia but not glutamine. The ATP saturation curve for the separated heavy subunit is still sigmoidal (n equals 1.4 and So.5 equals 0.3 mM). The ammonia dependent activity of the heavy subunit is stimulated by the activators ornithine, IMP, and phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate but is only marginally inhibited by high concentrations of UMP. The addition of the light subunit restored full ability to utilize glutamine as well as normal sensitivity to UMP. Purified subunits were used for in vitro complementation studies with strains carrying mutations in pyrA, the structural gene encoding carbamylphosphate synthetase. The results indicate that the pyrA region encodes both subunits and that the structural genes for the two polypeptides are linked. A deletion mutant lacking both subunits of carbamylphosphate synthetase also lacked any ability to synthetize carbamylphosphate from ammonia. Hence, unlike certain other bacteria, S. typhimurium does not possess a carbamate kinase.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1974

Cold-sensitive mutant of Salmonella typhimurium defective in nucleosidediphosphokinase.

A cold-sensitive mutant of Salmonella typhimurium defective in nucleosidediphosphokinase (ATP:nucleosidediphosphate phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.4.6) has been isolated and characterized. The mutant contains only 2% of the enzyme activity found in the parent, and the heat lability of this activity is 10 times that from the parent at 33 C. Mutant extracts lack the ability to convert any of 11 nucleoside diphosphates tested to the corresponding nucleoside triphosphates, but the nucleosidemonophosphatase activities are normal. Although the nucleoside triphosphate pools of the mutant are depressed significantly at the restrictive temperature (20 C), they are slightly elevated at the permissive temperature (37 C). The levels of guanosine pentaphosphate and guanosine tetraphosphate are dramatically increased. Two representative enzymes of pyrimidine de novo synthesis, aspartic transcarbamylase and dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, are fully repressed at both 37 and 20 C. Intracellular pools of uridine diphosphate are depressed at both permissive and restrictive temperature.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1974

Salmonella typhimurium mutants defective in cytidine monophosphate kinase (cmk).

Mutants of Salmonella typhimurium defective in cytidine 5'-monophosphate (CMP) kinase (cmk) have been isolated. The mutants also lack the ability to phosphorylate 2'-deoxyCMP, indicating that one enzyme is responsible for the phosphorylation of both CMP and deoxyCMP to the corresponding diphosphates. In glucose minimal medium the mutants grow at the same rate as the parental strain; however, they excrete large quantities of pyrimidines into the growth medium. Cytidine but not deoxycytidine has been identified among the excreted products. The mutant phenotype suggests that the physiological role of CMP kinase is that of rephosphorylating CMP arising from the breakdown of messenger ribonucleic acid. This proposed role of CMP kinase is supported by the fact that a cmk(-) mutant is much more sensitive to any partial impairment of cytidine 5'-triphosphate synthetase than is the cmk(+) parent strain. The gene cmk has been located on the Salmonella chromosome at 38.5 min. No markers which can be cotransduced with cmk by phage P22 have been found.

Autoradiography↗
PubMed1973

Characterization of a cold-sensitive hisW mutant of Salmonella typhimurium.

A cold-sensitive mutant of Salmonella typhimurium LT2 that grows at 37 C but not at 20 C has altered repression regulation in at least two amino acid biosynthetic pathways (histidine and isoleucine). The lesion conferring cold sensitivity that is linked with hisW is recessive. Assays for the acceptance of some amino acids by transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) reveal a decreased ability of the mutant tRNA to accept arginine, phenylalanine, and histidine. A mutation in a gene for tRNA maturation is a likely possibility for the mutation producing these effects on growth, regulation, and amino acid acceptance.

Acylation↗