Pseudomonas aeruginosa secretes copious amounts of an exopolysaccharide called alginate during infection in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. A mutation in the algR2 gene of mucoid P. aeruginosa is known to exhibit a nonmucoid (nonalginate-producing) phenotype and showed reduced activities of succinyl-coenzyme A (CoA) synthetase (Scs) and nucleoside diphosphate kinase (Ndk), implying coregulation of Ndk and Scs in alginate synthesis. We have cloned and characterized the sucCD operon encoding the ␣ and  subunits of Scs from P. aeruginosa and have studied the role of Scs in generating GTP, an important precursor in alginate synthesis. We demonstrate that, in the presence of GDP, Scs synthesizes GTP using ATP as the phosphodonor and, in the presence of ADP, Scs synthesizes ATP using GTP as a phosphodonor. In the presence of inorganic orthophosphate, succinyl-CoA, and an equimolar amount of ADP and GDP, Scs synthesizes essentially an equimolar amount of ATP and GTP. Such a mechanism of GTP synthesis can be an alternate source for the synthesis of alginate as well as for the synthesis of other macromolecules requiring GTP such as RNA and protein. Scs from P. aeruginosa is also shown to exhibit a broad NDP kinase activity. In the presence of inorganic orthophosphate (P i ), succinyl-CoA, and either GDP, ADP, UDP or CDP, it synthesizes GTP, ATP, UTP, or CTP. Scs was previously shown to copurify with Ndk, presumably as a complex. In mucoid cells of P. aeruginosa, Ndk is also known to exist in two forms, a 16-kDa cytoplasmic form predominant in the log phase and a 12-kDa membrane-associated form predominant in the stationary phase. We have observed that the 16-kDa Ndk-Scs complex present in nonmucoid cells, synthesizes all three of the nucleoside triphosphates from a mixture of GDP, UDP, and CDP, whereas the 12-kDa Ndk-Scs complex specifically present in mucoid cell predominantly synthesizes GTP and UTP but not CTP. Such regulation may promote GTP synthesis in the stationary phase when the bulk of alginate is synthesized by mucoid P. aeruginosa.Our laboratory is interested in studying the regulation of biosynthesis of alginate in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic pathogen. A number of cystic fibrosis (CF) isolates have been studied for their enhanced synthesis and secretion of alginate (16). Alginate is a polymer of D-manuronic and its C-5 epimer L-guluronic acid. GDP-mannuronic acid, derived from GDP-mannose, is the building block of alginate, which requires mannose 1-phosphate and GTP as precursors (17). Thus, alginate synthesis demands a steady supply of GTP for every molecule of mannuronic acid incorporated into a molecule of alginate. Recently, Kamath et al. (9) have shown that the mucoid strains of P. aeruginosa retain an active form of elastase in their periplasm, and this periplasmic elastase acts on 16-kDa Ndk to generate a truncated 12-kDa form that is membrane associated. It has been demonstrated that the membrane-associated 12-kDa nucleoside diphosphate (NDP) kinase (Ndk), in complex with pyruvat...