Growth rate modulation of four aminoacyl-transfer ribonucleic acid synthetases in enteric bacteria.

The specific activities of arginyl- glutamyl- seryl-, and valyl-transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) synthetases were measured in the wild-type and mutant strains of Salmonella typhimurium LT2 and Escherichia coli B/r. In media restricted only by carbon and energy source availability, the specific activities of all four enzymes were proportional to the growth rate, with the exception of seryl-tRNA synthetase in S. typhimurium, which remained essentially constant. Structural gene densities were calculated for these four enzymes and were found not to account for the variation of specific activity with growth rate.