The nucleotide sequence of the nitrogen-regulation gene ntrA of Klebsiella pneumoniae and comparison with conserved features in bacterial RNA polymerase sigma factors.

The nucleotide sequence of the Klebsiella pneumoniae ntrA gene has been determined. NtrA encodes a 53,926 Dalton acidic polypeptide; a calculated molecular weight which is significantly lower than that determined by SDS polyacrylamide gel analysis. NtrA is followed by another open-reading frame (orf) of at least 75 amino acids. In the spacer region between ntrA and orf there are no apparent transcription termination or promoter sequences and therefore orf may be co-transcribed with ntrA. Previous authors have proposed that NtrA could act as an RNA polymerase sigma factor but the NtrA amino acid sequence does not show a high level of homology to any known sigma factor. However analysis of sequences of five sigma factors from E. coli and B. subtilis has identified two conserved sequences at the C-terminal end of all these polypeptides. These sequences resemble those found in known site-specific DNA-binding domains and may be involved in recognition of conserved -35 and -10 promoter sequences. A similar pair of sequences is present at the C-terminus of NtrA and could play a role in recognition of ntr-activatable promoters.