Acquisition of azide-resistance by elevated SecA ATPase activity confers azide-resistance upon cell growth and protein translocation in Bacillus subtilis.

We isolated four azide-resistant secA mutants of Bacillus subtilis and found that all of them were the result of a single amino acid replacement of threonine 128 of SecA by alanine or isoleucine. In the presence of 1.5 mM sodium azide, cell growth and protein translocation of the wild-type strain were completely inhibited, but those of the azide-resistant mutant strains were not. Wild-type and two mutant SecA proteins were purified. Both the basal level and the elevated ATPase activity of the mutant SecA proteins were threefold higher than those of the wild-type SecA. The elevated ATPase activity of the SecA mutants was reduced upon the addition of 1.5 mM sodium azide by only 5-10% as compared with 40% for that of the wild-type. These results indicate that the elevated ATPase activity of the SecA mutants is resistant to sodium azide and that is also required for the protein translocation process of B. subtilis.