Identification of a CysB-regulated gene involved in glutathione transport in Escherichia coli.

Growth of Escherichia coli using the tripeptide glutathione as a sulfur source is well documented, but transport of glutathione into E. coli is uncharacterized. We have found that the ybiK gene, at 18.7 min, appears to be involved in the transport of glutathione and have therefore renamed ybiK as spt for sulfur peptide transport. The ybiK/spt gene is the first of what appear to be five cotranscribed genes, three of which show high homology to the peptide transport operon dpp. When the lacZ gene encoding beta-galactosidase was fused to the promoter of ybiK/spt, expression of the ybiK-lacZ fusion was repressed in rich media. This was shown to be due to the presence of exogenous cysteine. The ybiK-lacZ fusion was found to be regulated by cysB, the transcriptional activator for the cysteine regulon. Mutations in the cysB or ybiK genes led to severe growth inhibition when cells were given glutathione as the sole sulfur source. In particular, strains of E. coli containing mutations in both the ybiK and cysA genes were unable to grow when the sole sulfur source provided was glutathione whereas single cysA mutants grew well with glutathione. In contrast, no such defects were seen when L-djenkolic acid or cysteine were used as the sole sulfur source.