AlgR3, a protein resembling eukaryotic histone H1, regulates alginate synthesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

A regulatory mutation (alg52) in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa alginate-negative mutant (strain 8882) is complemented efficiently by the gene algR2 and somewhat inefficiently by a second gene termed algR3. algR3 and algR2 are located on a 4.4-kilobase-pair HindIII-BamHI fragment, which has been completely sequenced. algR2 has previously been characterized. Introduction of kanamycin-resistance cassettes and deletion-subcloning experiments involving various open reading frames in the HindIII-BamHI fragment have localized the algR3 gene, which encodes a 340-amino acid polypeptide. This highly basic regulatory protein contains 17% lysine and 36% alanine. The predicted amino acid sequence shows no significant similarity with any bacterial proteins and yet is highly similar to the sea urchin Lytechinus pictus histone H1 subtype of protein. Promoter localization by reverse transcriptase mapping of the algR3 gene shows the presence of Escherichia coli sigma 70 recognition sequences, and coupled transcription/translation experiments in E. coli demonstrate the presence of a 39-kDa polypeptide encoded by the cloned algR3 gene.