Cloning and disruption of a putative NaH-antiporter gene of Enterococcus hirae

Mathilde Waser, Denise Hess-Bienz, Kelvin Davies, Marc Solioz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

97 Scopus citations

Abstract

When growing in a sodium-rich environment, wildtype Enterococcus hirae extrudes sodium by two mechanisms, ATP-driven sodium extrusion, and NaH-antiport. Mutant 7683 is unable to grow on sodium-rich media. This is due to two mutations, one inactivating ATP-driven sodium transport and a second rendering NaH-antiport inoperative. 7683 was transformed by electroporation with a gene bank, derived from E. hirae, in an Escherichia coli-E. hirae shuttle vector. Transformants which had regained the ability to grow on sodium-rich media were selected for and the transforming plasmids analyzed. A gene able to restore NaH-antiport activity in 7683 was identified. This gene was named napA. It codes for an extremely hydrophobic protein of 383 amino acids. Hydropathy analysis of this protein indicates that it probably forms 12 transmembraneous helices. In a mutant, possessing only the NaH-antiporter, the napA gene was disrupted by homologous recombination. The resultant strain failed to grow in sodium-rich media, and vesicles isolated from these cells exhibited a defect in sodium proton antiport activity. We conclude that the napA gene codes for a NaH-antiporter. The NapA protein does not exhibit significant homology to any protein in the EMBL genetic data bank.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5396-5400
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Biological Chemistry
Volume267
Issue number8
StatePublished - Mar 15 1992
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Cloning and disruption of a putative NaH-antiporter gene of Enterococcus hirae'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this