Regulation of the Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP cyanuric acid degradation operon

Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP is the model strain for studying bacterial degradation of the s-triazine herbicide atrazine. In this work, we focused on the expression of the atzDEF operon, involved in mineralization of the central intermediate of the pathway, cyanuric acid. Expression analysis of atzD-lacZ fusions in Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP and Pseudomonas putida showed that atzDEF is subjected to dual regulation in response to nitrogen limitation and cyanuric acid. The gene adjacent to atzD, orf99 (renamed here atzR), encoding a LysR-like regulator, was found to be required for both responses. Expression of atzR-lacZ was induced by nitrogen limitation and repressed by AtzR. Nitrogen regulation of atzD-lacZ and atzR-lacZ expression was dependent on the alternative sigma factor sigmaN and NtrC, suggesting that the cyanuric acid degradation operon may be subject to general nitrogen control. However, while atzR is transcribed from a sigmaN-dependent promoter, atzDEF transcription appears to be driven from a sigma70-type promoter. Expression of atzR from a heterologous promoter revealed that although NtrC regulation of atzD-lacZ requires the AtzR protein, it is not the indirect result of NtrC-activated AtzR synthesis. We propose that expression of the cyanuric acid degradation operon atzDEF is controlled by means of a complex regulatory circuit in which AtzR is the main activator. AtzR activity is in turn modulated by the presence of cyanuric acid and by a nitrogen limitation signal transduced by the Ntr system.