Thiamine Synthesis Research Articles

Lesions in gshA (Encoding gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteine synthetase) prevent aerobic synthesis of thiamine in Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium LT2.

Thiamine pyrophosphate is an essential cofactor that is synthesized de novo in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and other bacteria. In addition to genes encoding enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway, mutations in other metabolic loci have been shown to prevent thiamine synthesis. The latter loci identify the integration of the thiamine biosynthetic pathway with other metabolic processes and can be uncovered when thiamine biosynthesis is challenged. Mutations in gshA, encoding gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteine synthetase, prevent the synthesis of glutathione, the major free thiol in the cell, and are shown here to result in a thiamine auxotrophy in some of the strains tested, including S. enterica LT2. Phenotypic characterization of the gshA mutants indicated they were similar enough to apbC and apbE mutants to warrant the definition of a class of mutants unified by (i) a requirement for both the hydroxymethyl pyrimidine (HMP) and thiazole (THZ) moiety of thiamine, (ii) the ability of L-tryosine to satisfy the THZ requirement, (iii) suppression of the thiamine requirement by anaerobic growth, and (iv) suppression by a second-site mutation at a single locus. Genetic data indicated that a defective ThiH generates the THZ requirement in these strains, and we suggest this defect is due to a reduced ability to repair a critical [Fe-S] cluster.

Metabolic defects caused by mutations in the isc gene cluster in Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium: implications for thiamine synthesis.

The metabolic consequences of two insertions, iscR1::MudJ and iscA2::MudJ, in the isc gene cluster of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium were studied. Each of these insertions had polar effects and caused a nutritional requirement for the thiazole moiety of thiamine. Data showed that IscS was required for the synthesis of nicotinic acid and the thiazole moiety of thiamine and that one or more additional isc gene products were required for a distinct step in the thiazole biosynthetic pathway. Strains with isc lesions had reduced succinate dehydrogenase and aconitase activities. Furthermore, isc mutants accumulated increased levels of pyruvate in the growth medium in response to exogenously added iron (FeCl(3)), and this response required a functional ferric uptake regulator, Fur.

Reduced flux through the purine biosynthetic pathway results in an increased requirement for coenzyme A in thiamine synthesis in Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium.

Work presented here establishes a connection between cellular coenzyme A (CoA) levels and thiamine biosynthesis in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Prior work showed that panE mutants (panE encodes ketopantoate reductase) had a conditional requirement for thiamine or pantothenate. Data presented herein show that the nutritional requirement of panE mutants for either thiamine or pantothenate is manifest only when flux through the purine biosynthetic pathway is reduced. Further, the data show that under the above conditions it is the lack of thiamine pyrophosphate, and not decreased CoA levels, that directly prevents growth.

Lesions in the nuo operon, encoding NADH dehydrogenase complex I, prevent PurF-independent thiamine synthesis and reduce flux through the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway in Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium.

In Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, PurF-independent thiamine synthesis (or alternative pyrimidine biosynthesis) allows strains, under some growth conditions, to synthesize thiamine in the absence of the first step in the purine biosynthetic pathway. Mutations have been isolated in a number of loci that prevent this synthesis and thus result in an Apb(-) phenotype. Here we identify a new class of mutations that prevent PurF-independent thiamine synthesis and show that they are defective in the nuo genes, which encode the major, energy-generating NADH dehydrogenase of the cell. Data presented here indicated that a nuo mutant has reduced flux through the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway that may contribute to, but is not sufficient to cause, the observed thiamine requirement. We suggest that reduction of the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway capacity in a nuo mutant is an attempt to restore the ratio between reduced and oxidized pyridine nucleotide pools.

A periplasmic location is essential for the role of the ApbE lipoprotein in thiamine synthesis in Salmonella typhimurium.

ApbE is a lipoprotein in Salmonella typhimurium, and mutants unable to make this protein have a reduced ability to make thiamine (vitamin B(1)) and require it as a supplement for optimal growth in minimal glucose medium. Polyclonal antibodies specific to ApbE were used to determine that wild-type ApbE is located exclusively in the inner membrane. The periplasmic, monotopic topology of ApbE was determined by using computer-based hydrophobicity plots, LacZ and PhoA gene fusions, and proteinase protection experiments. This extracellular location of ApbE is required for its function, since a cytoplasmic form (ApbE(cyto)) did not allow an apbE mutant to grow in the absence of thiamine. A periplasmic form of ApbE (ApbE(peri)) lacking the lipoprotein modification allowed an apbE mutant to grow in the absence of thiamine, indicating that soluble ApbE could function in thiamine synthesis and that lipoation and membrane association were not required. Alteration of the amino acid implicated in membrane sorting for other lipoproteins did not result in a relocalization of ApbE to the outer membrane, suggesting that additional sorting determinants exist for ApbE.

Defects in pyruvate kinase cause a conditional increase of thiamine synthesis inSalmonella typhimurium

As genomic sequence data become more prevalent, the challenges in microbial physiology shift from identifying biochemical pathways to understanding the interactions that occur between them to create a robust but responsive metabolism. One of the most powerful methods to identify such interactions is in vivo phenotypic analysis. We have utilized thiamine synthesis as a model to detect subtle metabolic interactions due to the sensitivity allowed by the small cellular requirement for this vitamin. Although purine biosynthesis produces an intermediate in thiamine synthesis, mutants blocked in the first step of de novo purine biosynthesis (PurF) are able to grow in the absence of thiamine owing to an alternative synthesis. A number of general metabolic defects have been found to prevent PurF-independent thiamine synthesis. Here we report stimulation of thiamine-independent growth caused by a mutation in one or both genes encoding the pyruvate kinase isozymes. The results presented herein represent the first phenotype described for mutants defective in pykA or pykF, and thus identify metabolic interactions that exist in vivo.

Defects in pyruvate kinase cause a conditional increase of thiamine synthesis in <i>Salmonella typhimurium</i>

Defects in pyruvate kinase cause a conditional increase of thiamine synthesis in <i>Salmonella typhimurium</i>

Complex metabolic phenotypes caused by a mutation in yjgF, encoding a member of the highly conserved YER057c/YjgF family of proteins.

The oxidative pentose phosphate pathway is required for function of the alternative pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway, a pathway that allows thiamine synthesis in the absence of the PurF enzyme in Salmonella typhimurium. Mutants that no longer required function of the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway for thiamine synthesis were isolated. Further phenotypic analyses of these mutants demonstrated that they were also sensitive to the presence of serine in the medium, suggesting a partial defect in isoleucine biosynthesis. Genetic characterization showed that these pleiotropic phenotypes were caused by null mutations in yjgF, a previously uncharacterized open reading frame encoding a hypothetical 13.5-kDa protein. The YjgF protein belongs to a class of proteins of unknown function that exhibit striking conservation across a wide range of organisms, from bacteria to humans. This work represents the first detailed phenotypic characterization of yjgF mutants in any organism and provides important clues as to the function of this highly conserved class of proteins. Results also suggest a connection between function of the isoleucine biosynthetic pathway and the requirement for the pentose phosphate pathway in thiamine synthesis.

The panE gene, encoding ketopantoate reductase, maps at 10 minutes and is allelic to apbA in Salmonella typhimurium.

In Salmonella typhimurium, precursors to the pyrimidine moiety of thiamine are synthesized de novo by the purine biosynthetic pathway or the alternative pyrimidine biosynthetic (APB) pathway. The apbA gene was the first locus defined as required for function of the APB pathway (D. M. Downs and L. Petersen, J. Bacteriol. 176:4858-4864, 1994). Recent work showed the ApbA protein catalyzes the NADPH-specific reduction of ketopantoic acid to pantoic acid. This activity had previously been associated with the pantothenate biosynthetic gene panE. Although previous reports placed panE at 87 min on the Escherichia coli chromosome, we show herein that apbA and panE are allelic and map to 10 min on both the S. typhimurium and E. coli chromosomes. Results presented here suggest that the role of ApbA in thiamine synthesis is indirect since in vivo labeling studies showed that pantoic acid, the product of the ApbA-catalyzed reaction, is not a direct precursor to thiamine via the APB pathway.

The apbE gene encodes a lipoprotein involved in thiamine synthesis in Salmonella typhimurium.

Thiamine pyrophosphate is an essential cofactor that is synthesized de novo in Salmonella typhimurium. The biochemical steps and gene products involved in the conversion of aminoimidazole ribotide (AIR), a purine intermediate, to the 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methyl pyrimidine (HMP) moiety of thiamine have yet to be elucidated. We have isolated mutations in a new locus (Escherichia coli open reading frame designation yojK) at 49 min on the S. typhimurium chromosome. Two significant phenotypes associated with lesions in this locus (apbE) were identified. First, apbE purF double mutants require thiamine, specifically the HMP moiety. Second, in the presence of adenine, apbE single mutants require thiamine, specifically both the HMP and the thiazole moieties. Together, the phenotypes associated with apbE mutants suggest that flux through the purine pathway has a role in regulating synthesis of the thiazole moiety of thiamine and are consistent with ApbE being involved in the conversion of AIR to HMP. The product of the apbE gene was found to be a 36-kDa membrane-associated lipoprotein, making it the second membrane protein implicated in thiamine synthesis.

Expression of thiamin biosynthetic genes (thiCOGE) and production of symbiotic terminal oxidase cbb3 in Rhizobium etli.

In this paper we report the cloning and sequence analysis of four genes, located on plasmid pb, which are involved in the synthesis of thiamin in Rhizobium etli (thiC, thiO, thiG, and thiE). Two precursors, 4-methyl-5-(beta-hydroxyethyl)thiazole monophosphate and 4-amino-5-hydroxymethylpyrimidine pyrophosphate, are coupled to form thiamin monophosphate, which is then phosphorylated to make thiamin pyrophosphate. The first open reading frame (ORF) product, of 610 residues, has significant homology (69% identity) with the product of thiC from Escherichia coli, which is involved in the synthesis of hydroxymethylpyrimidine. The second ORF product, of 327 residues, is the product of a novel gene denoted thiO. A protein motif involved in flavin adenine dinucleotide binding was found in the amino-terminal part of ThiO; also, residues involved in the catalytic site of D-amino acid oxidases are conserved in ThiO, suggesting that it catalyzes the oxidative deamination of some intermediate of thiamin biosynthesis. The third ORF product, of 323 residues, has significant homology (38% identity) with ThiG from E. coli, which is involved in the synthesis of the thiazole. The fourth ORF product, of 204 residues, has significant homology (47% identity) with the product of thiE from E. coli, which is involved in the condensation of hydroxymethylpyrimidine and thiazole. Strain CFN037 is an R. etli mutant induced by a single Tn5mob insertion in the promoter region of the thiCOGE gene cluster. The Tn5mob insertion in CFN037 occurred within a 39-bp region which is highly conserved in all of the thiC promoters analyzed and promotes constitutive expression of thiC. Primer extension analysis showed that thiC transcription in strain CFN037 originates within the Tn5 element. Analysis of c-type protein content and expression of the fixNOQP operon, which codes for the symbiotic terminal oxidase cbb3, revealed that CFN037 produces the cbb3 terminal oxidase. These data show a direct relationship between expression of thiC and production of the cbb3 terminal oxidase. This is consistent with the proposition that a purine-related metabolite, 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide, is a negative effector of the production of the symbiotic terminal oxidase cbb3 in R. etli.

Evidence that rseC, a gene in the rpoE cluster, has a role in thiamine synthesis in Salmonella typhimurium.

In Salmonella typhimurium, the genetic loci and biochemical reactions necessary for the conversion of aminoimidazole ribotide (AIR) to the 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methyl pyrimidine (HMP) moiety of thiamine remain unknown. Preliminary genetic analysis indicates that there may be more than one pathway responsible for the synthesis of HMP from AIR and that the function of these pathways depends on the availability of AIR, synthesized by the purine pathway or by the purF-independent alternative pyrimidine biosynthetic (APB) pathway (L. Petersen and D. Downs, J. Bacteriol. 178:5676-5682, 1996). An insertion in rseB, the third gene in the rpoE rseABC gene cluster at 57 min, prevented HMP synthesis in a purF mutant. Complementation analysis demonstrated that the HMP requirement of the purF rseB strain was due to polarity of the insertion in rseB on the downstream rseC gene. The role of RseC in thiamine synthesis was independent of rpoE.

Identification and characterization of the thiamine transporter gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A positive selection scheme is described that selects for thiamine transporter clones. The scheme is based on the rescue of lethality, under non-permissive conditions, of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that are conditional for thiamine biosynthesis and are defective in thiamine transport. Transport defective strains were generated by selection for resistance to the lethal thiamine analog, pyrithiamine. Pyrithiamine resistance was shown to be a recessive, single gene trait that resulted from the mutation of the thiamine transporter gene, as suggested by previous work. Conditional thiamine biosynthesis was generated by cloning THI4, a thiamine biosynthetic gene, into a URA3 containing plasmid and transforming a strain disrupted in THI4. Thus, plating on 5-fluoroorotic acid causes the loss of thiamine synthesis ability. The gene for the yeast thiamine transporter, THI7, was cloned using this scheme. The predicted 598 amino acid transporter is a member of the major facilitator superfamily of transporters and thus possesses 12 transmembrane spanning segments with amino and carboxy termini intracellularly located. Several alterations in the coding region were characterized that result in greatly reduced ability to transport thiamine. The level of transporter mRNA was found to be rapidly and dramatically reduced by the addition of thiamine to the growth medium.

Mutations in sdh (succinate dehydrogenase genes) alter the thiamine requirement of Salmonella typhimurium.

Mutants lacking the first enzyme in de novo purine synthesis (PurF) can synthesize thiamine if increased levels of pantothenate are present in the culture medium (J. L. Enos-Berlage and D. M. Downs, J. Bacteriol. 178:1476-1479, 1996). Derivatives of purF mutants that no longer required pantothenate for thiamine-independent growth were isolated. Analysis of these mutants demonstrated that they were defective in succinate dehydrogenase (Sdh), an enzyme of the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Results of phenotypic analyses suggested that a defect in Sdh decreased the thiamine requirement of Salmonella typhimurium. This reduced requirement correlated with levels of succinyl-coenzyme A (succinyl-CoA), which is synthesized in a thiamine pyrophosphate-dependent reaction. The effect of succinyl-CoA on thiamine metabolism was distinct from the role of pantothenate in thiamine synthesis.

A novel involvement of the PurG and PurI proteins in thiamine synthesis via the alternative pyrimidine biosynthetic (APB) pathway in Salmonella typhimurium.

Thiamine is thought to be synthesized by two alternative pathways, one involving the first four enzymes of the purine pathway and a second that can function independently of the purine pathway. Insertion mutations in purG and purI prevent thiamine synthesis through the alternative pyrimidine biosynthetic (APB) pathway under aerobic but not anaerobic growth conditions. In contrast, point mutations in purG and purI caused one of three distinct phenotypes: Pur- Apb-, Pur- Apb+, or Pur+ Apb-. Analysis of these three mutant classes demonstrated two genetically separable functions for PurG and PurI in thiamine synthesis. In addition to their known enzymatic role in de novo purine synthesis, we propose that PurG and PurI play a novel, possibly nonenzymatic role in the APB pathway. Suppression analysis of Pur- Apb- mutants identified two new genetic loci involved in the APB pathway, apbB and apbD). We show here that mutations in apbB and apbD cause distinct, allele-specific suppression of the thiamine requirement of purG and purI mutants. Our results suggest that PurG and PurI and one or more components of the APB pathway may function as a complex needed for aerobic function of the APB pathway.

Mutations in apbC (mrp) prevent function of the alternative pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway in Salmonella typhimurium.

The alternative pyrimidine biosynthetic (APB) pathway can synthesize the 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methyl pyrimidine (HMP) moiety of thiamine in Salmonella typhimurium independently of de novo purine biosynthesis. When mutants defective in function of the APB pathway were isolated, the predominant class (40%) were defective in a single locus we have designated apbC. Mutations in apbC block function of the APB pathway since they prevent growth of a purF mutant in the absence of thiamine. Lesions in apbC also cause a thiamine auxotrophy in strains proficient in purine biosynthesis when fructose is provided as the sole carbon and energy source. Results presented here are consistent with ApbC being involved in the conversion of aminoimidazole ribonucleotide to HMP, and we suggest that ApbC performs a redundant step in thiamine synthesis. Sequence analysis demonstrated that apbC mutations were alleles of mrp, a locus previously reported in Escherichia coli as a metG-related protein. We propose that this locus in S. typhimurium be designated apbC to reflect its involvement in thiamine synthesis.

Molecular cloning of thi-4, a gene necessary for the biosynthesis of thiamine in Neurospora crassa.

The thiamine-4 (thi-4) gene was cloned by functional complementation of a thi-4 mutant of Neurospora crassa. The product of this gene is believed to be involved in the condensation of pyrimidine and thiazole precursors, which is necessary for the synthesis of thiamine. The thi-4 gene has ten introns which vary in length from 57 to 200 bp and the junction and internal (lariat) sequences are in good agreement with the consensus sequences for the splicing of introns in N. crassa. The thi-4 gene encodes a protein of 538 amino acids which is similar in terms of amino-acid sequence to proteins encoded by Saccharomyces cerevisiae whose function is unknown. The expression of the thi-4 gene in N. crassa was not repressed by thiamine.

Genetic Analysis of Metabolic Crosstalk and Its Impact on Thiamine Synthesis in Salmonella typhimurium

The first five steps in de novo purine biosynthesis are involved in the formation of the 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methyl pyrimidine (HMP) moiety of thiamine. We show here that the first enzyme in de novo purine biosynthesis, PurF, is required for thiamine synthesis during aerobic growth on some but not other carbon sources. We show that PurF-independent thiamine synthesis depends on the recently described alternative pyrimidine biosynthetic (APB) pathway. Null mutations in zwf (encoding glucose-6-dehydrogenase), gnd (encoding gluconate-6-P dehydrogenase), purE (encoding aminoimidazole ribonucleotide carboxylase), and purR (encoding a regulator of gene expression) were found to affect the function of the APB pathway. A model is presented to account for the involvement of these gene products in thiamine biosynthesis via the APB pathway. Results presented herein demonstrate that function of the APB pathway can be prevented either by blocking intermediate formation or by diverting intermediate(s) from the pathway. Strong genetic evidence supports the conclusion that aminoimidazole ribotide (AIR) is an intermediate in the APB pathway.

Study of the influence of high levels of sulfate on the rumen microbial synthesis of thiamin in a semi-continuous fermentor (Rusitec)

Study of the influence of high levels of sulfate on the rumen microbial synthesis of thiamin in a semi-continuous fermentor (Rusitec)

Study of the influence of high levels of sulfate on the rumen microbial synthesis of thiamin in a semi-continuous fermentor (Rusitec)

Study of the influence of high levels of sulfate on the rumen microbial synthesis of thiamin in a semi-continuous fermentor (Rusitec)