Molecular Regulation of Pyrimidine Nucleotide Synthesis in Bacterial Genomes

Regulation of pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis has been studied extensively in enteric bacteria and Bacillus species. Varieties of control modes have been proposed for regulation of pyrimidine nucleotide biosynthetic (pyr) genes. In Bacillus caldolyticus and B. subtilis, it has been proved that pyrimidine de novo biosynthetic operon is controlled by a regulatory protein PyrR-mediated attenuation. Another Gram-positive bacteria including Enterococcus faecalis, Lactobacillus plantarum, and wctococcus lactis have been found to constitute a pyr gene cluster containing the pyrR gene. In addition, it has been proposed that the structure of the 5' leader region of the Gram-negative extreme thermophile Thermus strain Z05 pyr operon provides a novel mechanism of PyrR-dependent coupled transcription-translation attenuation. Bacterial genome sequencing projects have identified the PyrR homologues in Haemophilus influenzae, Synechocystis sp., Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, S. pyogenes, and Clostridium acetobutylicum, which are currently investigating for their physiological functions.