Genetic analysis of mutants affected in the Pst inorganic phosphate transport system

A number of mutant alleles affecting the Pst phosphate transport system have been divided into three complementation groups on the basis of constitutive alkaline phosphatase activity in appropriate partial diploid strains. The three complementation groups were represented by the alleles pstA2 and phoT32 and the newly described allele pstB401. The two alleles phoS28 and phoS21 appeared to be polar. The phoS28 allele affected both the phoT and pstB genes but not the pstA gene, whereas the phoS21 allele appeared to be a mutation in the pstA gene exerting polar effects on both the pstB and phoT genes. It was concluded that the three genes pstA, pstB, and phoT were part of an operon and that the phosphate-binding protein was not coded for by any of these genes. The phoS gene, defined as the structural gene for the phosphate-binding protein, is also part of the operon, but the phoS28 and phoS21 alleles are not mutations in the phoS gene and were reclassified as pho-28 and pho-21 alleles. The gene order was concluded to be pstA-(pstB-phoT)-phoS, with the pstA gene promotor proximal and the direction of transcription opposite to that of the nearby unc operon.