Acquisition of lactose fermenting properties by salmonellae. II. Role of the medium

Purification and characterization of beta-glucosidase of Alcaligenes faecalis

A cellobiose-utilizing bacterium isolated from sugar cane bagasse and identified as a strain of Alcaligenes faecalis (ATCC 21400) produced an inducible beta-glucoside-splitting enzyme. The enzyme was purified by a series of streptomycin and ammonium sulfate fractionations and by Sephadex and diethylaminoethyl column chromatography. The final preparation was purified 130-fold, with a recovery of about 10% of the initial enzyme activity. The enzyme had a wide pH range, with optimal activity at pH 6.0 to 7.0. The enzyme was stable in solution at pH 6.5 to 7.8 when kept at 30 C for 2 hr, but it was destroyed by temperatures above 55 C. At 58 and 60 C, the time required to inactivate 90% of the initial activity was 16 and 6.5 min, respectively. An activation energy of 9,500 cal/mole and a K(m) of 1.25 x 10(-4)m were obtained by using p-nitrophenyl beta-glucoside as a substrate. The K(i) value and hydrolysis of cellobiose by the enzyme indicated a high affinity of the enzyme for the cellobiose. The enzyme had its specificity on beta-glucosidic linkage and the rate of hydrolisis of glucosides depended upon the nature of the aglycon moiety. The inactivation studies showed the presence of sulfhydryl groups in the enzyme. The activity of the enzyme was easily destroyed by the Cu(++) and Hg(++) ions. The Michaelis-Menton relationship and the rate of heat inactivation indicated the presence of one type of noninteracting active site in the bacterial beta-glucosidase. Molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated by gel filtration (Sephadex G-200) and sucrose density gradient, and a value of 120,000 to 160,000 was obtained.

Polynucleotide sequence relationships among members of Enterobacteriaceae

Polynucleotide relationships were examined among many representatives of the Enterobacteriaceae by means of agar, membrane filter, and hydroxyapatite procedures. The amount of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that reassociated was dependent, especially in interspecific reactions, on the annealing temperature. In only three cases: Escherichia coli-Shigella flexneri, Salmonella typhimurium-S. typhi, and Proteus mirabilis-P. vulgaris, was relative interspecific duplex formation 80% or higher. In most cases interspecies DNA duplex formation was 40% or less of that obtained from intraspecies DNA reassociation reactions. The stability of E. coli-S. flexneri DNA duplexes formed at either 60 or 75 C was virtually identical to that of homologous E. coli DNA duplexes, and the degree of interspecies duplex formation was minimally affected by the temperature increase (86% at 60 C; 77% at 75 C). The thermal stability of DNA duplexes formed at 60 C between DNA from E. coli and DNA from strains of Aerobacter aerogenes, S. typhimurium, S. typhi, and P. mirabilis was about 12 to 14 C below that of reassociated E. coli DNA. At 75 C, the formation of the interspecific DNA duplexes was markedly decreased, but the stability of the DNA able to reassociate at this temperature approximated that of reassociated E. coli DNA. The degree of reassociation and the thermal stability of E. coli-S. flexneri DNA duplexes suggests relatively little evolutionary divergence in these organisms. The other enterobacteria tested, however, have diverged to a point where less than one-half of their DNA can reanneal with E. coli DNA at 60 C and less than 10% reacts at 75 C. The degree of divergence between various enterobacteria does not appear to be uniform along the DNA molecule. Ribosomal ribonucleic acid (RNA)-specific sequences are conserved among most enterobacteria. An examination of messenger RNA relatively specific for the lactose operon suggests that specific chromosomal genes may diverge more or less than the genome as a whole.

Inducible system for the utilization of beta-glucosides in Escherichia coli. I. Active transport and utilization of beta-glucosides

Wild-type Escherichia coli strains (beta-gl(-)) do not split beta-glucosides, but inducible mutants (beta-gl(+)) can be isolated which do so. This inducible system consists of a beta-glucoside permease and an aryl beta-glucoside splitting enzyme. Both can be induced by aryl and alkyl beta-glucosides. In beta-gl(-) and noninduced beta-gl(+) cells, C(14)-labeled thioethyl beta-glucoside (TEG) is taken up by a constitutive permease, apparently identical with a glucose permease (GP). This permease has a high affinity for alpha-methyl glucoside and a low affinity for aryl beta-glucosides. No accumulation of TEG occurs in a beta-gl(-) strain lacking glucose permease (GP(-)). In induced beta-gl(+) strains, there appears a second beta-glucoside permease with low affinity for alpha-methyl glucoside and high affinity for aryl beta-glucosides. Autoradiography shows that TEG is accumulated by the beta-glucoside permease and glucose permease in two different forms (one being identical with TEG, the other probably phosphorylated TEG). In GP(+) beta-gl(+) strains with high GP activity, alkyl beta-glucosides induce the enzyme and the beta-glucoside permease after a prolonged induction lag, and they competitively inhibit the induction by aryl beta-glucosides. The induction lag and competition do not exist in GP(-) beta-gl(+) strains. It is assumed that phosphorylated alkyl and thioalkyl beta-glucosides inhibit the induction, and that this inhibition is responsible for the induction lag.