Regulation of the citrate synthase (gltA) gene of Escherichia coli in response to anaerobiosis and carbon supply: role of the arcA gene product.

As an enzyme of the tricarboxylic acid cycle pathway, citrate synthase participates in the generation of a variety of cellular biosynthetic intermediates and in that of reduced purine nucleotides that are used in energy generation via electron transport-linked phosphorylation reactions. It catalyzes the condensation of oxaloacetate and acetyl coenzyme A to produce citrate plus coenzyme A. In Escherichia coli this enzyme is encoded by the gltA gene. To investigate how gltA expression is regulated, a gltA-lacZ operon fusion was constructed and analyzed following aerobic and anaerobic cell growth on various types of culture media. Under aerobic culture conditions, expression was elevated to a level twofold higher than that reached under anaerobic culture conditions. ArcA functions as a repressor of gltA expression under each set of conditions: in a delta arcA strain, gltA-lacZ expression was elevated to levels two- and eightfold higher than those seen in a wild-type strain under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, respectively. This control is independent of the fnr gene product, an alternative anaerobic gene regulator in E. coli. When the richness or type of carbon compound used for cell growth was varied, gltA-lacZ expression varied by 10- to 14-fold during aerobic and anaerobic growth. This regulation was independent of both the crp and fruR gene products, suggesting that another regulatory element in E. coli is responsible for the observed control. Finally, gltA-lacZ expression was shown to be inversely proportional to the cell growth rate. These findings indicate that the regulation of gltA gene expression is complex in meeting the differential needs of the cell for biosynthesis and energy generation under various cell culture conditions.