The nucleotide sequence of the methylamine utilization (mau) gene region from Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 was determined. Open reading frames for 11 genes (mauFBEDACJGLMN) were found, all transcribed in the same orientation. The mauB, mauA, and mauC genes encode the periplasmic methylamine dehydrogenase (MADH) large and small subunit polypeptides and amicyanin, respectively. The products of...

1 discussed the phylogenetic distribution of C2H2 zinc finger transcriptional regulators, which were thought to be exclusively eukaryotic but have been recently found in several prokaryotes. These proteins display different regulatory roles in Sphingomonas aromaticivorans and some members of the symbiotic bacterial genera Rhizobium, Sinorhizobium and Agrobacterium. Distantly related proteins ha...

Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 is a facultative methylotroph capable of growth on both single-carbon and multicarbon compounds. Mutants defective in a pathway involved in converting acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) to glyoxylate (the ethylmalonyl-CoA pathway) are unable to grow on both C(1) and C(2) compounds, showing that both modes of growth have this pathway in common. However, growth on C(2) compou...

In a recent paper we reported the sequence of the beginning of a serine cycle gene cluster on the Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 chromosome, containing the genes encoding serine glyoxylate aminotransferase (sgaA), hydroxypyruvate reductase (hprA), and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (mtdA) (L. V. Chistoserdova and M. E. Lidstrom J. Bacteriol. 176:1957-1968, 1994). Here we present ...

Methylobacterium dichloromethanicum DM4 grows with dichloromethane as the unique carbon and energy source by virtue of a single enzyme, dichloromethane dehalogenase-glutathione S-transferase. A mutant of the dichloromethane-degrading strain M. dichloromethanicum DM4, strain DM4-1445, was obtained by mini-Tn5 transposon mutagenesis that was no longer able to grow with dichloromethane. Dichlorome...

A 4.0 kb region of Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 DNA which complements three mutants unable to convert acetyl-CoA to glyoxylate (and therefore defective in the assimilation of methanol and ethanol) has been isolated and sequenced. It contains two ORFs and the 3'-end of a third one. The mutations in all three mutants mapped within the first ORF, which was designated meaA; it encodes a protein ...