ORGANIZATION OF GENES ENCODING MEMBRANE-PROTEINS OF THE ESCHERICHIA-COLI FERRIENTEROBACTIN PERMEASE

Transposon mutagenesis and plasmid complementation studies have identified two genes, fepD and fepG, which are essential for ferrienterobactin transport in Escherichia coli. These genes mapped in the enterobactin gene cluster and genetic evidence indicated that they are transcribed as part of an operon (fepD, fepG, fepC). The nucleotide sequence of fepD was determined; it could encode a hydrophobic 33.8 kDa protein with sequence homologies to other iron and vitamin B-12 transport proteins. Also identified, between fepD and fepB, was an open reading frame (ORF43) with no detectable function; its 43kDa protein product (P43) was seen on polyacrylamide gels. The fepD-C operon and ORF43 were divergently transcribed from a 110bp region containing a binding site for the repressor protein Fur.