Control of pyrimidine nucleotide formation in Pseudomonas aurantiaca

Abstract

The control of pyrimidine nucleotide formation in the bacterium Pseudomonas aurantiaca ATCC 33663 by pyrimidines was studied. The activities of the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway enzymes were investigated in P. aurantiaca ATCC 33663 cells and from cells of an auxotroph lacking orotate phosphoribosyltransferase activity under selected culture conditions. All activities of the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway enzymes in ATCC 33663 cells were depressed by uracil addition to the minimal medium when succinate served as the carbon source. In contrast, all pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway enzyme activities in ATCC 33663 cells were depressed by orotic acid supplementation to the minimal medium when glucose served as the carbon source. The orotidine 5'-monophosphate decarboxylase activity in the phosphoribosyltransferase mutant strain increased by more than sixfold in succinate-grown cells and by more than 16-fold in glucose-grown cells after pyrimidine limitation showing possible repression of the decarboxylase by a pyrimidine-related compound. Inhibition by ATP, GTP, UTP and pyrophosphate of the in vitro activity of aspartate transcarbamoylase in ATCC 33663 was observed. The findings demonstrated control at the level of pyrimidine biosynthetic enzyme synthesis and activity for the P. aurantiaca transcarbamoylase. The control of pyrimidine synthesis in P. aurantiaca seemed to differ from what has been observed previously for the regulation of pyrimidine biosynthesis in related Pseudomonas species. This investigation could prove helpful to future work studying pseudomonad taxonomic analysis as well as to those exploring antifungal and antimicrobial agents produced by P. aurantiaca.