Physiological studies of salmonella histidine operator-promoter mutants.

S. typhimurium hisO mutations are cis dominant and trans recessive and occur in a regulatory segment separate from but adjacent to the first structural gene of the histidine operon, hisG. Strains containing hisO mutations singly and in combination with other regulatory mutations were examined for their content of L-histidinol phosphate phosphatase when grown on limiting and on excess L-histidine. HisO mutations classed as "constitutive" (high enzyme levels) or as "promoter-like" (low enzyme levels) cause a variety of sub-phenotypes. A model is proposed that accounts for the phenotypes found as well as for the interspersion of constitutive and promoter-like mutations on the genetic map (Ely, Fankhauser and Hartman 1974). In this model we suggest that the his operator-promoter DNA is a functional unit that assumes alternate conformations including: (a) the classic linear duplex, active in transcription, and (b) a looped structure that is transcriptionally closed and susceptible to the binding of repressor.