Nitrate reductases of Escherichia coli: sequence of the second nitrate reductase and comparison with that encoded by the narGHJI operon

Abstract

The structural genes for NRZ, the second nitrate reductase of Escherichia coli, have been sequenced. They are organized in a transcription unit, narZYWV, encoding four subunits, NarZ, NarY, NarW and NarV. The transcription unit is homologous (73% identity) to the narGHJI operon which encodes the genes for NRA, the better characterized nitrate reductase of this organism. The level of homology between the corresponding polypeptides ranges from 69% for the NarW/NarJ pair to 86% for the NarV/NarI pair. The NarZ polypeptide contains the five conserved regions present in all other known molybdoproteins of E. coli and their relative order is the same. The NarY polypeptide, which contains the same four cysteine clusters in the same order as NarH, is probably an electron transfer unit of the complex. Upstream of narZ, an open reading frame, ORFA, is present which could encode a product which has homology (73% identity) with the COOH-terminal end of NarK. The ORFA-narZ intergenic region, however, is about 80 nucleotides long and does not contain the cis-acting elements, NarL and Fnr boxes, nor the terC4 terminator sequence present in the 500 nucleotide narK-narG intergenic region. This might explain why the narZYWV and the narGHJI operons are regulated differently. Our results tend to support the hypothesis that a DNA fragment larger than that encompassing the narGHJI genes has been duplicated.