Evidence for two different gas vesicle proteins and genes in Halobacterium halobium
Open Access
- 1 April 1988
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Journal of Bacteriology
- Vol. 170 (4), 1746-1751
- https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.170.4.1746-1751.1988
Abstract
Most halobacteria produce gas vesicles (GV). The well-characterized species Halobacterium halobium and some GV+ revertants of GV- mutants of H. halobium produce large amounts of GV which have a spindlelike shape. Most other GV+ revertants of H. halobium GV- mutants and other recently characterized halobacterial wild-type strains possess GV with a cylindrical form. The number of intact particles in the latter isolates is only 10 to 30% of that of H. halobium. Analysis of GV envelope proteins (GVPs) by electrophoresis on phenol-acetic acid-urea gels showed that the GVP of the highly efficient GV-producing strains migrated faster than the GVP of the low-GV-producing strains. The relative molecular mass of the GVP was estimated to be 19 kilodaltons (kDa) for high-producing strains (GVP-A) and 20 kDa for low-producing strains (GVP-B). Amino acid sequence analysis of the first 40 amino acids of the N-terminal parts of GVP-A and GVP-B indicated that the two proteins differed in two defined positions. GVP-B, in relation to GVP-A, had Gly-7 and Val-28 always replaced by Ser-7 and Ile-28, respectively. These data suggest that at least two different gvp genes exist in H. halobium NRL. This was directly demonstrated by hybridization experiments with gvp-specific DNA probes. A fragment of plasmid pHH1 and a chromosomal fragment of H. halobium hybridized to the probes. Only a chromosomal fragment hybridized to the same gyp probes when both chromosomal and plasmid DNAs from the low-GV-producing halobacterial wild-type strains SB3 and GN101 were examined. These findings support the assumption that GVP-A is expressed by a pHH1-associated gvp gene and GVP-B by a chromosomal gvp gene.This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- A developmentally regulated gvpABC operon is involved in the formation of gas vesicles in the cyanobacterium Calothrix 7601Gene, 1987
- Complete amino acid sequence of cyanobacterial gas-vesicle protein indicates a 70-residue molecule that corresponds in size to the crystallographic unit cellBiochemical Journal, 1986
- Molecular cloning and nucleotide sequence of a developmentally regulated gene from the cyanobacteriumCalothrixPCC 7601: a gas vesicle protein geneNucleic Acids Research, 1985
- Homologies between heterogeneous extrachromosomal DNA populations of Halobacterium halobium and four new halobacterial isolatesMolecular Genetics and Genomics, 1984
- Characterization of plasmids in halobacteriaJournal of Bacteriology, 1981
- Acrylamide gel electrophoresis of hydrophobic proteins: Gas vacuole proteinElectrophoresis, 1980
- A large plasmid from Halobacterium halobium carrying genetic information for gas vacuole formationPlasmid, 1979
- Structure and function of gas vacuoles.1972
- Structure and function of gas vacuolesMicrobiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 1972
- Cleavage of Structural Proteins during the Assembly of the Head of Bacteriophage T4Nature, 1970