Summary
Chlorate resistant mutants of the cyanobacterium Nostoc muscorum isolated after N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) mutagenesis were found to be defective/blocked in nitrate reductase (NR).
The parent strain possessed active NR in the presence of nitrogen as nitrate and only basal levels of activity in ammonia and N-free grown cultures. Addition of ammonia suppressed the NR activity in the parent strain whereas addition of L-methionine DL-sulphoximine (MSX) restored NR activity. A similar repression by ammonia, glutamine and derepression with MSX were also observed for nitrogenase synthesis.
One class of mutants lacked NR activity (nar -) whereas the specific activity of NR was low in another class of mutants (nar def). Unlike the parent, the mutants synthesized nitrogenase and differentiated heterocysts in the presence of nitrate nitrogen. Uptake studies of nitrite and ammonia in mutants revealed that they possessed both nitrite reductase and glutamine synthetases (GS) at low levels, and the same level respectively in comparison with the parent.
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Pandey, K.D., Singh, P.K. Isolation and characterisation of nitrate reductase mutants and regulation of nitrate reductase and nitrogenase in the cyanobacterium Nostoc muscorum . Mol Gen Genet 195, 180–185 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00332743
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00332743