Activation of a new proline transport system in Salmonella typhimurium

Proline uptake can be mediated by three different transport systems in wild-type Salmonella typhimurium: a high-affinity proline transport system encoded by the putP gene and two glycine-betaine transport systems with a low affinity for proline encoded by the proP and proU genes. However, only the PutP permease transports proline well enough t allow growth on proline as a sole carbon or nitrogen source. By selecting for mutations that allow a putP mutant to grow on proline as a sole nitrogen source, we isolated mutants (designated proZ) that appeared to activate a cryptic proline transport system. These mutants enhanced the transport of proline and proline analogs but did not require the function of any of the known proline transport genes. The mutations mapped between 75 and 77.5 min on the S. typhimurium linkage map. Proline transport by the proZ mutants was competitively inhibited by isoleucine and leucine, which suggests that the ProZ phenotype may be due to unusual mutations that alter the substrate specificity of the branched-chain amino acid transport system encoded by the liv genes.