Regulation of the balanced synthesis of membrane phospholipids. Experimental test of models for regulation in Escherichia coli.

In Escherichia coli, highly effective regulation controls the balanced synthesis of membrane phospholipids, important for optimal growth. Regulation is such that normally about 70% of a common pool of cytosine liponucleotide precursor is utilized by phosphatidylserine synthase and eventually converted to phosphatidylethanolamine, while about 30% is utilized by the competing enzyme phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase and converted to phosphatidylglycerol (25%) plus cardiolipin (5%). Although the ratio of phosphatidylglycerol to cardiolipin may vary with conditions of growth, the sum of these two lipids remains relatively constant at about 30% of the total. Alternative models, postulating coordinate regulation of the two competing enzymes, or independent feedback regulation are proposed. These models were tested in experiments in which phosphatidylglycerol was continuously removed from growing cells treated with arbutin (4-hydroxyphenyl-O-beta-D-glucoside), causing its conversion to arbutinphosphoglycerol (Bohin, J.-P., and Kennedy, E.P. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 8388-8393.) The synthesis of phosphatidylglycerol was increased by a factor of 7 in cells treated with arbutin, with only small changes in phospholipid composition and with no significant change in the level of phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase. The synthesis of phosphatidylethanolamine was not significantly increased, decisively eliminating the model that requires coordinate regulation of phosphatidylserine synthase and phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase, and supporting the model of independent feedback inhibition, sensitive to very small changes in composition of cellular phospholipids.