Molecular Analysis of the Salmonella Typhimurium tdc Operon Regulation

Efficient expression of the Salmonella Typhimurium tdc ABCDEG operon involved in the degradation of L-serine and L-threonine requires TdcA, the transcriptional activator of the tdc operon. We found that the tdcA gene was transiently activated when the bacterial growth condition was changed from aerobic to anaerobic, but this was not observed if Salmonella was grown anaerobically from the beginning of the culture. Expression kinetics of six tdc genes after anaerobic shock demonstrated by a real-time PCR assay showed that the tdc CDEG genes were not induced in the tdcA mutant but tdcB maintained its inducibility by anaerobic shock even in the absence of tdcA, suggesting that an additional unknown transcriptional regulation may be working for the tdcB expression. We also investigated the effects of nucleoid-associated proteins by primer extension analysis and found that H-NS repressed tdcA under anaerobic shock conditions, and fis mutation delayed the peak expression time of the tdc operon. DNA microarray analysis of genes regulated by TdcA revealed that the genes involved in N-acetylmannosamine, maltose, and propanediol utilization were significantly induced in a tdcA mutant. These findings suggest that Tdc enzymes may playa pivotal role in energy metabolism under a sudden change of oxygen tension.