YtsJ has the major physiological role of the four paralogous malic enzyme isoforms in Bacillus subtilis.

ABSTRACT: The Bacillus subtilis genome contains several sets of paralogs. An extreme case is the four putative malic enzyme genes maeA, malS, ytsJ, and mleA. maeA was demonstrated to encode malic enzyme activity, to be inducible by malate, but also to be dispensable for growth on malate. We report systematic experiments to test whether these four genes ensure backup or cover different functions. Analysis of single- and multiple-mutant strains demonstrated that ytsJ has a major physiological role in malate utilization for which none of the other three genes could compensate. In contrast, maeA, malS, and mleA had distinct roles in malate utilization for which they could compensate one another. The four proteins exhibited malic enzyme activity; MalS, MleA, and MaeA exhibited 4- to 90-fold higher activi

SUBMITTER: Lerondel G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1482987 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature