Sugar transport by the bacterial phosphotransferase system. Reconstitution of inducer exclusion in Salmonella typhimurium membrane vesicles.

The accompanying articles (Saffen, D.W., Presper, K.A., Doering, T.L., and Roseman, S. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 16241-16253; Mitchell, W.J., Saffen, D. W., and Roseman, S. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 16254-16260) show that "inducer exclusion" in intact cells of Escherichia coli is regulated by IIIGlc, a protein encoded by the crr gene of the phosphoenolpyruvate:glycose phosphotransferase system (PTS). The present studies attempt to show a direct effect of IIIGlc on non-PTS transport systems. Inner membrane vesicles prepared from a wild type strain of Salmonella typhimurium (pts+), carrying the E. coli lactose operon on an episome, showed respiration-dependent accumulation of methyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside (TMG) via the lactose permease. In the presence of methyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside or other PTS sugars, TMG uptake was reduced by an amount which was dependent on the relative concentrations of IIIGlc and lactose permease in the vesicles. The endogenous IIIGlc concentration in these vesicles was in the range 5-10 microM, similar to that found in whole cells. Methyl-alpha-glucoside had no effect on lactose permease activity in vesicles prepared from a deletion mutant strain lacking the soluble PTS proteins Enzyme I, HPr, and IIIGlc. One or more of the pure proteins could be inserted into the mutant vesicles; when one of the two electrophoretically distinguishable forms of the phosphocarrier protein, IIIGlc Slow, was inserted, both the initial rate and steady state level of TMG accumulation were reduced by up to 40%. The second electrophoretic form, IIIGlc Fast, had much less effect. A direct relationship was observed between the intravesicular concentration of IIIGlc Slow and the extent of inhibition of the lactose permease. No inhibition was observed when IIIGlc Slow was added to the outside of the vesicles, indicating that the site of interaction with the lactose permease is accessible only from the inner face of the membrane. In addition to the lactose permease, IIIGlc Slow was found to inhibit both the galactose and the melibiose permeases. Uptake of proline, on the other hand, was unaffected. The results are therefore consistent with an hypothesis that dephosphorylated IIIGlc Slow is an inhibitor of certain non-PTS permeases.