An aerotaxis transducer gene from Pseudomonas putida

An aerotaxis gene, aer, was cloned from Pseudomonas putida PRS2000. A P. pu tida net mutant displayed an altered aerotactic response in a capillary ass ay. Wild-type P. putida clustered at the air/liquid interface. In contrast, the aer mutant did not cluster at the interface, but instead formed a diff use band at a distance from the meniscus. Wild-type aer, provided in trans, complemented the aer mutant to an aerotactic response that was stronger th an wild-type. The P. putida Aer sequence is similar over its entire length to the aerotaxis (energy taxis) signal transducer protein, Aer, of Escheric hia coli. The amino-terminus is similar to redox-sensing regulatory protein s, and the carboxy-terminus contains the highly conserved domain present in chemotactic transducers. (C) 2000 Federation of European Microbiological S ocieties. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.