Azotobacter vinelandii NADPH:ferredoxin reductase cloning, sequencing, and overexpression

Abstract

Azotobacter vinelandii ferredoxin I (AvFdI) controls the expression of another protein that was originally designated Protein X. Recently we reported that Protein X is a NADPH-specific flavoprotein that binds specifically to FdI (Isas, J.M., and Burgess, B.K. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 19404-19409). The gene encoding this protein has now been cloned and sequenced. Protein X is 33% identical and has an overall 53% similarity with the fpr gene product from Escherichia coli that encodes NADPH:ferredoxin reductase. On the basis of this similarity and the similarity of the physical properties of the two proteins, we now designate Protein X as A. vinelandii NADPH:ferredoxin reductase and its gene as the fpr gene. The protein has been overexpressed in its native background in A. vinelandii by using the broad host range multicopy plasmid, pKT230. In addition to being regulated by FdI, the fpr gene product is overexpressed when A. vinelandii is grown under N2-fixing conditions even though the fpr gene is not preceded by a nif specific promoter. By analogy to what is known about fpr expression in E. coli, we propose that FdI may exert its regulatory effect on fpr by interacting with the SoxRS regulon.