Bassler B L, Wright M, Showalter R E, Silverman M R
Agouron Institute, La Jolla, California 92037.
Mol Microbiol. 1993 Aug;9(4):773-86. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1993.tb01737.x.
Density-dependent expression of luminescence in Vibrio harveyi is regulated by the concentration of an extracellular signal molecule (autoinducer) in the culture medium. A recombinant clone that restored function to one class of spontaneous dim mutants was found to encode functions necessary for the synthesis of, and response to, a signal molecule. Sequence analysis of the region encoding these functions revealed three open reading frames, two (luxL and luxM) that are required for production of an autoinducer substance and a third (luxN) that is required for response to this signal substance. The LuxL and LuxM proteins are not similar in amino acid sequence to other proteins in the database, but the LuxN protein contains regions of sequence resembling both the histidine protein kinase and the response regulator domains of the family of two-component, signal transduction proteins. The phenotypes of mutants with luxL, luxM and luxN defects indicated that an additional signal-response system controlling density-dependent expression of luminescence remains to be identified.
哈维氏弧菌中发光的密度依赖性表达受培养基中细胞外信号分子（自诱导物）浓度的调节。发现一个能恢复一类自发暗淡突变体功能的重组克隆编码了信号分子合成及应答所需的功能。对编码这些功能区域的序列分析揭示了三个开放阅读框，其中两个（luxL和luxM）是产生自诱导物物质所必需的，第三个（luxN）是对该信号物质作出应答所必需的。LuxL和LuxM蛋白在氨基酸序列上与数据库中的其他蛋白不相似，但LuxN蛋白包含的序列区域类似于双组分信号转导蛋白家族的组氨酸蛋白激酶和应答调节结构域。具有luxL、luxM和luxN缺陷的突变体的表型表明，仍有待鉴定另一个控制发光密度依赖性表达的信号应答系统。
