NifL, an antagonistic regulator of NifA interacting with NifA.

Nitrogen fixation (nif) genes of diazotrophic enteric bacteria,Enterobacter cloacae orKlebsiella pneumoniae, are regulated bynif LA operon, in which thenif A product, NifA positively regulatesnif gene transcription, whereas the nifL product NifL represses it under oxygen or in excess of fixed nitrogen. Two-hybrid system was used to detect the possible interaction between NifA and NifL. The preliminary results illustrate that NifL does interact with NifA.

Functional difference between Sinorhizobium meliloti NifA and Enterobacter cloacae NifA.

The nifA gene is an important regulatory gene and its product, NifA protein, regulates the expression of many nif genes involved in the nitrogen fixation process. We introduced multiple copies of the constitutively expressed Sinorhizobium meliloti (Sm) or Enterobacter cloacae (Ec) nifA gene into both the nifA mutant strain SmY and the wild-type strain Sm1021. Root nodules produced by SmY containing a constitutively expressed Sm nifA gene were capable of fixing nitrogen, while nodules produced by SmY containing the Ec nifA gene remained unable to fix nitrogen, as is the case for SmY itself.

Complementation analysis and characterization of the nitrogen fixation genes, nifH, nifC and nifJ in Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Complementation tests were performed with various nif mutations for delineating the nif genes. The nif-/nif- heterogenotes were constructed by transferring nif plasmid mutant PRD-nif- from E. coli Jc5466 to various Klebsiella pneumoniae nif- recipients.