Expression of the guanyl-specific ribonuclease genes in bacillus intermedium and bacillus pumilus is regulated by the PhoP-PhoB two-component signal-transduction system of the PHO regulon of bacillus subtilis

Abstract

Promoters of the genes of guanyl-specific ribonucleases of Bacillus intermedius (binase) and Bacillus pumilus (RNase Bp) were found to contain sequences homologous to those recognizable by the regulatory protein PhoP in the promoters of the PHO regulon of B. subtilis, as well as regions partially homologous to the binding sites of another regulatory protein, PhoB, in the promoters of the PHO regulon of Escherichia coli. The role of the two-component regulatory systems PhoP-PhoR and PhoB-PhoR in the regulation of expression of the genes of binase and RNase Bp in recombinant strains of B. subtilis and E. coli was studied by using mutant strains. It was established that the expression of these genes in recombinant B. subtilis cells is stringently controlled by the PhoP-PhoR two-component regulatory system, whereas the expression of these genes in E. coli cells is not controlled by the regulatory proteins PhoB or PhoR. Presumably, regulatory systems of the response to phosphate starvation, analogous to the PHO regulon of B. subtilis, also function in other representatives of the genus Bacillus.