Evidence for a second nitrate reductase activity that is distinct from the respiratory enzyme in Salmonella typhimurium

Abstract

Significant nitrate reductase activity was detected in mutants of S. typhimurium which mapped at or near chlC and which were incapable of growth with nitrate as electron acceptor. The same mutants were sensitive to chlorate and performed sufficient nitrate reduction to permit anaerobic growth with nitrate as the sole nitrogen source in media containing glucose. The mutant nitrate-reducing protein did not migrate with the wild-type nitrate reductase in polyacrylamide electrophoretic gels. Studies of the electrophoretic mobility in gels of different polyacrylamide concentration revealed that the wild-type and mutant nitrate reductases differed significantly in both size and charge. The second enzyme also differed from the wild-type major enzyme in its response to repression by low pH and its lack of response to repression by glucose. The same mutants were found to be depressed for nitrate reductase and for a cytochrome with a maximal reduced absorbance at 555 nm at 25°C. This cytochrome was not detected in preparations of the wild type grown under the same conditions. Extracts of these mutants contained normal amounts of the b-type cytochromes which, in the wild type, were associated with nitrate reductase and formate dehydrogenase, respectively, although they could not mediate the oxidation of these cytochromes with nitrate. They were capable of oxidizing the derepressed 555-nm peak cytochrome with nitrate. It is suggested that these mutants synthesize a nitrate-reducing enzyme which is distinct from the chlC gene product and which is repressed in the wild type during anaerobic growth with nitrate.