Deduced products of C4-dicarboxylate transport regulatory genes of Rhizobium leguminosarum are homologous to nitrogen regulatory gene products.

We have sequenced two genes dctB and dctD required for the activation of the C4-dicarboxylate transport structural gene dctA in free-living Rhizobium leguminosarum. The hydropathic profile of the dctB gene product (DctB) suggested that its N-terminal region may be located in the periplasm and its C-terminal region in the cytoplasm. The C-terminal region of DctB was strongly conserved with similar regions of the products of several regulatory genes that may act as environmental sensors, including ntrB, envZ, virA, phoR, cpxA, and phoM. The N-terminal domains of the products of several regulatory genes thought to be transcriptional activators, including ntrC, ompR, virG, phoB and sfrA. In addition, the central and C-terminal regions of DctD were strongly conserved with the products of ntrC and nifA, transcriptional activators that require the alternate sigma factor rpoN (ntrA) as co-activator. The central region of DctD also contained a potential ATP-binding domain. These results are consistent with recent results that show that rpoN product is required for dctA activation, and suggest that DctB plus DctD-mediated transcriptional activation of dctA may be mechanistically similar to NtrB plus NtrC-mediated activation of glnA in E. coli.