The Rhizobium meliloti rhizopine mos locus is a mosaic structure facilitating its symbiotic regulation

Abstract

The Rhizobium meliloti L5-30 mos locus, encoding biosynthesis of the rhizopine 3-O-methyl-scyllo-inosamine, is shown to be a mosaic structure. The mos locus consists of four open reading frames (ORFs) (ORF1 and mosABC) arranged in an operon structure. Within this locus, several domains of homology with other prokaryotic symbiotic genes (nifH, fixA, fixU, and nifT) are present, suggesting that this locus may represent a hot spot for rearrangement of symbiotic genes. Unusually, these domains are present in the coding as well as noncoding regions of the mos locus. Proteins corresponding to those encoded by mosABC, but not ORF1, have been detected in nodule extracts by using antibodies. As ORF1 shows extensive homology with the 5' region of the nifH gene (P.J. Murphy, N. Heycke, S.P. Trenz, P. Ratet, F.J. de Bruijn, and J. Schell, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85:9133-9137, 1988) and a frameshift mutation indicates that expression of this ORF is not required for mos activity, we propose that the mos locus has acquired a duplicated copy of nifH, including the promoter region, in order to become symbiotically regulated. Surprisingly, since the functions are likely different, MosA has an amino acid sequence similar to that of the DapA protein of Escherichia coli. The central domain of MosB has extensive homology with a range of diverse proteins involved with carbohydrate metabolism in either antibiotic or outer-cell-wall biosynthesis. This region is also common to the regulatory proteins DegT and DnrJ, suggesting a regulatory role for MosB. The structure of MosC is consistent with its being a membrane transport protein.