Suppressed nonsense mutations in the araC gene of Escherichia coli provide three novel variant proteins.

A total of 400 suppressible mutations have been isolated in the araC gene of Escherichia coli. Based on deletion mapping, growth patterns when suppressed, and intragenic recombination, 37 mutants have been determined to contain unique mutations. Rapid plate assays were developed to test for each of the three AraC protein functions: inducing araBAD, repressing araBAD, and araC self-repression. The 185 mutant proteins, resulting from 37 mutants each suppressed by five different suppressors, were assayed for each of the three AraC functions. These plate assays showed that: (i) for each function, some areas of the gene map are more sensitive to mutation than other areas, and (ii) three of the mutant AraC proteins were unlike previously characterized AraC mutants. Enzyme assays on the mutant proteins confirmed their novel character. The first mutant cannot induce araBAD but retains the capacity to perform both repression functions; and the second and third can each perform one of the two repression functions better than it can perform the other. These characteristics suggest that previously proposed models of ara regulation are incomplete.