Recent Papers

ABSTRACT

The areCBA genes in Acinetobacter sp. strain ADP1, determining growth on benzyl alkanoates, are shown to be transcribed as a single operon and regulated by areR encoding a regulatory protein of the NtrC/XylR family. Assays of the Are enzymes and of two insertions of lacZ as reporter gene have shown that the operon is induced by benzyl acetate, benzyl alcohol and benzaldehyde as well as 2- and 4-hydroxybenzyl acetates and benzyl propionate and butyrate. Two adjacent sites of transcriptional initiation were 97 and 96 bp upstream of the start codon for areC, close to a sigma 54-dependent  —12,-24 promoter. Inactivation of areR and rpoN (for RNA polymerase sigma factor 54) drastically reduced growth rates on the Are substrates and induction of the operon.