Urea utilization in the phototrophic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus is regulated by the transcriptional activator NtrC.

Abstract

The phototrophic nonsulfur purple bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus can use urea as a sole source of nitrogen. Three transposon Tn5-induced mutations (Xan-9, Xan-10, and Xan-19), which led to a Ure(-) phenotype, were mapped to the ureF and ureC genes, whereas two other Tn5 insertions (Xan-20 and Xan-22) were located within the ntrC and ntrB genes, respectively. As in Klebsiella aerogenes and other bacteria, the genes encoding urease (ureABC) and the genes required for assembly of the nickel metallocenter (ureD and ureEFG) are clustered in R. capsulatus (ureDABC-orf136-ureEFG). No homologues of Orf136 were found in the databases, and mutational analysis demonstrated that orf136 is not essential for urease activity or growth on urea. Analysis of a ureDA-lacZ fusion showed that maximum expression of the ure genes occurred under nitrogen-limiting conditions (e.g., serine or urea as the sole nitrogen source), but ure gene expression was not substrate (urea) inducible. Expression of the ure genes was strictly dependent on NtrC, whereas sigma(54) was not essential for urease activity. Expression of the ure genes was lower (by a factor of 3.5) in the presence of ammonium than under nitrogen-limiting conditions, but significant transcription was also observed in the presence of ammonium, approximately 10-fold higher than in an ntrC mutant background. Thus, ure gene expression in the presence of ammonium also requires NtrC. Footprint analyses demonstrated binding of NtrC to tandem binding sites upstream of the ureD promoter. Phosphorylation of NtrC increased DNA binding by at least eightfold. Although urea is effectively used as a nitrogen source in an NtrC-dependent manner, nitrogenase activity was not repressed by urea.