Functional analysis of GlnE, an essential adenylyl transferase in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT: Glutamine synthetase (GS) plays an important role in nitrogen assimilation. The major GS of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is GlnA1, a type I GS whose activity is controlled by posttranscriptional modification by GlnE. GlnE is an adenylyl transferase comprised of an adenylylating domain and a deadenylylating domain which modulate GS activity. We previously demonstrated that GlnE is essential in M. tuberculosis in normal growth medium. In this study, we further show that GlnE is required under multiple medium conditions, including in nitrogen-limited medium. We demonstrate that adenylylation is the critical activity for M. tuberculosis survival, since we were able to delete the deadenylylation domain with no apparent effect on growth or GS activity. Furthermore, we identified a critical asparta

SUBMITTER: Carroll P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2446997 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature