Identification of the Klebsiella pneumoniae glnB gene: nucleotide sequence of wild-type and mutant alleles.

The glnB gene of Klebsiella pneumoniae, which encodes the nitrogen regulation protein PII, has been cloned and sequenced. The gene encodes a 12429 dalton polypeptide and is highly homologous to the Escherichia coli glnB gene. The sequences of a glnB mutation which causes glutamine auxotrophy and of a Tn5 induced Gln+ suppressor of this mutation were also determined. The glutamine auxotrophy was deduced to be the result of a modification of the uridylylation site of PII, and the suppression was shown to be caused by Tn5 insertion in glnB. The 3' end of an open reading frame of unknown function was identified upstream of glnB and may be part of an operon containing glnB. Potential homologues of glnB encoding polypeptides extremely similar in sequence to PII were identified upstream of published sequences of the glutamine synthetase structural gene (glnA) in Rhizobium leguminosarum, Bradyrhizobium japonicum and Azospirillum brasilense.