Control of Inducer Accumulation Plays a Key Role in Succinate-Mediated Catabolite Repression in Sinorhizobium meliloti

Abstract

ABSTRACT The symbiotic, nitrogen-fixing bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti favors succinate and related dicarboxylic acids as carbon sources. As a preferred carbon source, succinate can exert catabolite repression upon genes needed for the utilization of many secondary carbon sources, including the α-galactosides raffinose and stachyose. We isolated lacR mutants in a genetic screen designed to find S . meliloti mutants that had abnormal succinate-mediated catabolite repression of the melA-agp genes, which are required for the utilization of raffinose and other α-galactosides. The loss of catabolite repression in lacR mutants was seen in cells grown in minimal medium containing succinate and raffinose and grown in succinate and lactose. For succinate and lactose, the loss of catabolite repression could be attributed to the constitutive expression of β-galactoside utilization genes in lacR mutants. However, the inactivation of lacR did not cause the constitutive expression of α-galactoside utilization genes but caused the aberrant expression of these genes only when succinate was present. To explain the loss of diauxie in succinate and raffinose, we propose a model in which lacR mutants overproduce β-galactoside transporters, thereby overwhelming the inducer exclusion mechanisms of succinate-mediated catabolite repression. Thus, some raffinose could be transported by the overproduced β-galactoside transporters and cause the induction of α-galactoside utilization genes in the presence of both succinate and raffinose. This model is supported by the restoration of diauxie in a lacF lacR double mutant ( lacF encodes a β-galactoside transport protein) grown in medium containing succinate and raffinose. Biochemical support for the idea that succinate-mediated repression operates by preventing inducer accumulation also comes from uptake assays, which showed that cells grown in raffinose and exposed to succinate have a decreased rate of raffinose transport compared to control cells not exposed to succinate.