Selective inhibition of carbohydrate transport by the local anesthetic procaine in Escherichia coli

Abstract

Maltose and lactose transport systems have been used to investigate the action of procaine on insertion and activity of membrane proteins and translocation of exported proteins in Escherichia coli. Procaine mildly inhibited growth on lactose. The level of inhibition was consistent with the small reduction observed in active and facilitated transport functions of the lac permease. However, procaine caused a severe reduction of growth rate on maltose, as well as an inhibition of induction of maltose regulon activities. In both constitutive and inducible strains, the synthesis of both maltose transport activity (malB operon) and amylomaltase activity (malA operon) was inhibited. Coordinate inhibition of soluble and membrane products was not observed with the lac operon. beta-Galactosidase synthesis proceeded normally during growth on procaine, whereas, the appearance of new transport activity was reduced. Regardless of carbon source, procaine specifically inhibited the appearance of ompF protein in the membrane fraction.