Cloning of the phs genetic locus from Salmonella typhimurium and a role for a phs product in its own induction.

The Salmonella typhimurium phs chromosomal locus essential for the reduction of thiosulfate to hydrogen sulfide was cloned, and some features of its regulation were examined. The phs locus conferred H2S production on Escherichia coli, suggesting that it contains the structural gene for thiosulfate reductase. H2S production by the E. coli host was, as in S. typhimurium, suppressed by nitrate or glucose in the growth medium. The presence of plasmid-borne phs genes in a S. typhimurium chl+ host containing a chromosomal phs::lacZ operon fusion was found to significantly increase the relative induction efficiency of beta-galactosidase by thiosulfate. These results are consistent with a model for phs regulation in which the true inducer is not thiosulfate per se and in which the action of a phs-encoded molybdoprotein, possibly the reductase itself, converts thiosulfate into a compound that resembles the true inducer more closely than does thiosulfate.