Biotin limitation in Sinorhizobium meliloti strain 1021 alters transcription and translation.

Most Sinorhizobium meliloti strains lack several key genes involved in microbial biotin biosynthesis, and it is assumed that this may be a special adaptation which allows the microbe to down-regulate metabolic activities in the absence of a host plant. To further explore this hypothesis, we employed two different strategies. (i) Searches of the S. meliloti genome database in combination with the construction of nine different gusA reporter fusions identified three genes involved in a biotin starvation response in this microbe. A gene coding for a protein-methyl carboxyl transferase (pcm) exhibited 13.6-fold-higher transcription under biotin-limiting conditions than cells grown in the presence of 40 nM biotin. Consistent with this observation, biotin-limiting conditions resulted in a significantly decreased survival of pcm mutant cells compared to parental cells or cells grown in the presence of 40 nM biotin. Further studies indicated that the autoinducer synthase gene, sinI, was transcribed at a 4.5-fold-higher level in early stationary phase in biotin-starved cells than in biotin-supplemented cells. Lastly, we observed that open reading frame smc02283, which codes for a putative copper resistance protein (CopC), was 21-fold down-regulated in response to biotin starvation. (ii) In a second approach, proteome analysis identified 10 proteins which were significantly down-regulated under the biotin-limiting conditions. Among the proteins identified by using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry were the pi subunit of the RNA polymerase and the 50S ribosomal protein L7/L12 (L8) subunit, indicating that biotin-limiting conditions generally affect transcription and translation in S. meliloti.