PII signal transduction proteins: pivotal players in post-translational control of nitrogenase activity

The fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by the prokaryotic enzyme nitrogenase is an energy- expensive process and consequently it is tightly regulated at a variety of levels. In many diazotrophs this includes post-translational regulation of the enzyme's activity, which has been reported in both b...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microbiology (Society for General Microbiology) 2012, Vol.158 (Pt 1), p.176-190
Main Authors: HUERGO, Luciano F, PEDROSA, Fábio O, MULLER-SANTOS, Marcelo, CHUBATSU, Leda S, MONTEIRO, Rose A, MERRICK, Mike, SOUZA, Emanuel M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria - enzymology
Bacteria - genetics
Bacteria - metabolism
Bacterial Proteins - genetics
Bacterial Proteins - metabolism
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
Microbiology
Nitrogenase - genetics
Nitrogenase - metabolism
PII Nitrogen Regulatory Proteins - genetics
PII Nitrogen Regulatory Proteins - metabolism
Protein Processing, Post-Translational
Signal Transduction
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by the prokaryotic enzyme nitrogenase is an energy- expensive process and consequently it is tightly regulated at a variety of levels. In many diazotrophs this includes post-translational regulation of the enzyme's activity, which has been reported in both bacteria and archaea. The best understood response is the short-term inactivation of nitrogenase in response to a transient rise in ammonium levels in the environment. A number of proteobacteria species effect this regulation through reversible ADP-ribosylation of the enzyme, but other prokaryotes have evolved different mechanisms. Here we review current knowledge of post-translational control of nitrogenase and show that, for the response to ammonium, the P(II) signal transduction proteins act as key players.
ISSN:1350-0872
1465-2080
DOI:10.1099/mic.0.049783-0