STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSES OF MUTANT FUR PROTEINS WITH IMPAIRED REGULATORY FUNCTION

Vibrio anguillarum Fur mutants, 775met9 and 775met11, were characteriz ed. V. anguillarum 775met9 had a change of D to G at position 104 loca ted in the carboxy terminus resulting in impaired Fur activity. Comput er analysis predicts perturbation of an alpha-helix in the carboxy ter minus which may interfere with Fur protein conformation. Strain 775met 11 had a change in the start codon resulting in no protein synthesis. The mutants are unstable, and reversion to the wild type occurs freque ntly.