Cold-sensitive ompB mutants affecting expression of ompC in Escherichia coli K12

Abstract

SUMMARYThe regulatory locus ompB, consisting of 2 genes, ompR and envZ, is required for the expression of ompC and ompF genes encoding the major outer membrane porin proteins OmpC and OmpF in Escherichia coli K12. We utilized localized mutagenesis to isolate cold-sensitive mutants in the ompB operon. The isolated mutants exhibited a cold-sensitive OmpC-phenotype, but remained OmpF-. Furthermore, ompC expression was still regulated by medium osmolarity. The cold-sensitive OmpC-phenotype was complemented by plasmids carrying the wild-type' ompB operon, but not by plasmids containing either envZ or ompR genes alone. This suggests that the mutations are in the ompB promotor. We show that the mutations can be used to control expression vectors based on the ompC promotor.