Isolation and characterization of mutants affected in the expression of the nar operon Escherichia coli

In the nitrate reductase system of Escherichia coli, the maximal expression of the nar operon is obtained under anaerobiosis in the presence of nitrate. Mudl (Ap,lac) insertion mutants, which only grew on lactose anaerobically if supplemented with nitrate were mapped at the chlC locus at min 27 of the map. In these fusion strains which lack benzyl viologen dependent nitrate reductase (NR) activity as well as the formiate-linked NR activity, the synthesis of beta-galactosidase reflects the regulation of the wild type nar operon at the transcriptional level. From these strains, two classes of spontaneous regulatory mutants were isolated: class I mutants which synthesized beta-galactosidase in anaerobiosis in the absence of nitrate and class II mutants in which the synthesis of that enzyme was partially independent of nitrate and it was no longer repressed by oxygen. The class I regulatory mutation was tightly linked to the nar operon as shown by bacteriophage P1 transductions. It probably affects either a closely linked cis-active element or a gene coding for a negative regulatory protein.