Klebsiella pneumoniae is able to grow anaerobically with citrate as a sole carbon and energy source by a fermentative pathway involving the Na ؉ -dependent citrate carrier CitS, citrate lyase, and oxaloacetate decarboxylase. The corresponding genes are organized in the divergent citC and citS operons, whose expression is strictly dependent on the citrate-sensing CitA-CitB two-component system. Evidence is provided here that the citrate fermentation genes are subject to catabolite repression, since anaerobic cultivation with a mixture of citrate and glucose or citrate and gluconate resulted in diauxic growth. Glucose, gluconate, and also glycerol decreased the expression of a chromosomal citS-lacZ fusion by 60 to 75%, whereas a direct inhibition of the citrate fermentation enzymes was not observed. The purified cyclic AMP (cAMP) receptor protein (CRP) of K. pneumoniae bound to two sites in the citC-citS intergenic region, which were centered at position ؊41.5 upstream of the citC and citS transcriptional start sites. Binding was apparently stimulated by the response regulator CitB. These data indicate that catabolite repression of the citrate fermentation genes is exerted by CRP and that in the absence of repressing carbon sources the cAMP-CRP complex serves to enhance the basal, CitB-dependent transcription level.Klebsiella pneumoniae, a member of the Enterobacteriaceae, is able to grow with citrate as a sole carbon and energy source under anoxic conditions (for a review, see reference 4). Citrate fermentation involves uptake by a Na ϩ -dependent citrate carrier (32, 44), cleavage into acetate and oxaloacetate by citrate lyase, and decarboxylation of oxaloacetate to pyruvate by the Na ϩ ion pump oxaloacetate decarboxylase (12, 13). The conversion of pyruvate to acetate, formate, CO 2 , and H 2 (7, 38) is catalyzed by enzymes generally involved in anaerobic pyruvate catabolism. The citrate-specific fermentation genes form a cluster of two divergent operons (5, 6). The citCDEFG operon encodes citrate lyase ligase (CitC), the citrate lyase subunits (CitD, CitE, and CitF), and triphosphoribosyl-dephospho-coenzyme A synthase (CitG), which catalyzes the formation of a precursor of the citrate lyase prosthetic group (36, 37). The citS-oadGAB-citAB operon encodes the citrate carrier CitS, the oxaloacetate decarboxylase subunits (OadG, OadA, and OadB), and a two-component system composed of the sensor kinase CitA and the response regulator CitB (Fig. 1A). The CitA-CitB system was shown to be essential for the expression of both operons (6). CitA presumably functions as a sensor of extracellular citrate, since the periplasmic domain of this membrane-bound protein binds citrate with high affinity (K d Ϸ 6 M) and specificity (23). CitB acts as a transcriptional activator of the citS and the citC operons and binds to two sites in the 193-bp citC-citS intergenic region (Fig. 1) in a phosphorylation-dependent fashion (24).Maximal expression of a chromosomally integrated translational citSЈ-ЈlacZ fusion requires citrate, anoxic...