The chromosomal ampC beta-lactamase in Citrobacter freundii and Enterobacter cloacae is inducible by beta-lactam antibiotics. When an inducible ampC gene is introduced on a plasmid into Escherichia coli together with its transcriptional regulator ampR, the plasmid-borne beta-lactamase is still inducible. We have isolated mutants, containing alterations in a novel E. coli gene, ampG, in which a cloned C. freundii ampC gene is unable to respond to beta-lactam inducers. The ampG gene was cloned, sequenced and mapped to minute 9.6 on the E. coli chromosome. The deduced amino acid sequence predicted AmpG to be a 53 kDa, transmembrane protein, which we propose acts as a signal transducer or permease in the beta-lactamase induction system. Immediately upstream of ampG there is another 579-base-pair-long open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative lipoprotein shown to be non-essential for beta-lactamase induction. We have found that ampG and this ORF form an operon, whose promoter is located in front of the ORF. Located closely upstream of the putative promoter is the morphogene bolA, which is transcribed in the opposite orientation. However, using transcription fusions, we have found that the ampG transcription is not regulated by bolA. In addition, we show that transcription is probably not regulated by either the starvation specific sigma factor RpoS, which controls bolA, or by AmpD the negative regulator for ampC transcription.

Mutants of Enterobacter cloacae 55 were studied to delineate more completely the genetics of inducible expression of AmpC beta-lactamase. E. cloacae 55M-L, derived by mutagenesis from a mutant with high-level cefotaxime resistance (MIC, greater than 64 micrograms/ml), E. cloacae 55M, demonstrated a novel phenotype by producing only low levels of AmpC constitutively. Neither the parental phenotype of E. cloacae 55M nor the wild-type phenotype of E. cloacae 55 could be restored in E. cloacae 55M-L by the introduction of functional ampR, ampC, or ampD genes. Cloning each of these genes from E. cloacae 55M-L confirmed the same genotype for this mutant as for its parental strain. Mutation of E. cloacae 55M-L to the E. cloacae 55M phenotype was found to occur spontaneously at a frequency of 10(-8). All such revertants demonstrated an inducible wild-type phenotype after introduction of a functional ampD. These results suggested that the E. cloacae 55M-L phenotype was due to a mutation in an as yet unrecognized gene, designated ampG. Verification of this gene was obtained by the restoration of the E. cloacae 55M phenotype in E. cloacae 55M-L by introduction of a cloned 2.9-kilobase BamHI fragment from the E. cloacae 55 chromosome. Transformation of both ampG and ampD into E. cloacae 55M-L reconstituted the inducible wild-type phenotype. These results indicate that ampG is required for the activation of ampC by AmpR. Without ampG, neither induction nor high-level expression of AmpC is possible. It is likely that the ampG gene product and AmpD together modulate the ability of AmpR to activate ampC expression.

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A study was done to determine the genetic locus responsible for altered expression of AmnpC 3-lactamase in Enterobacter cloacae 1194E and several mutants derived from E. cloacae 029. These phenotypes were defined by units of enzyme activity found in sonic extracts of cells before and after induction with cefoxitin and included (units uninduced/units induced) the wild-type (7/219), high-level constitutive (10,911/10,862), temperaturesensitive (at 30°C 82/706 and at 42C 5,031/6,020), and hyperinducible (19/1,688) phenotypes. When the ampD region of each E. cloacae strain was cloned and introduced into an ampD mutant Escherichia coli strain, the altered phenotypes were found to reside within this locus. Furthermore, transformants containing wid-type ampD were poorly inducible at 42C while those with high-level constitutive or hyperinducible ampD were unaffected by temperature. Since the source of ampD was the only variable in these E. coli transformants, these results suggested that ampD encodes a protein that is involved in sensing the inducer. To test this possibility, the responses to different inducers of E. coli transformants containing various ampD regions were assessed. In the presence of wild-type ampD, transformants responded equally to cefoxitin and cefotetan, regardless of temperature. In the presence of temperature-sensitive ampD, induction by cefotetan was similar to that by cefoxitin at 30°C but greater than that by cefoxitin at 42°C. These results suggest that ampD encodes a protein involved in induction of AmpC P-lactgmase in E. cloacae.