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Conservation of nif sequences in Frankia

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Summary

Southern blots of Frankia total DNAs were hybridized with nifHDK probes from Rhizobium meliloti, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Frankia strain Arl3. Differences between strains were noted in the size of the hybridizing restriction fragments. These differences were more pronounced among Elaeagnus-compatible strains than among Alnus- or Casuarina-compatible strains. Gene banks constructed for Frankia strains EUN1f, HRN18a, CeD and ACoN24d were used to isolate nif-hybridizing restriction fragments for subsequent mapping and comparisons. The nifH zone had the highest sequence conservation and the nifH and nifD genes were found to be contiguous. The complete nucleotide sequence of the nifH open reading frame (ORF) from Frankia strain Arl3 is 861 bp in length and encodes a polypeptide of 287 amino acids. Comparisons of these nucleic acid and amino acid sequences with other published nifH sequences suggest that Frankia is most similar to Anabaena and Azotobacter spp. and K. pneunoniae and least similar to the Gram-positive Clostridium pasteurianum and to the archaebacterium Methanococcus voltae.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherche en Biologie Forestière, Université Laval, G1K 7P4, Québec, Canada

    Philippe Normand

  2. Laboratoire de Biologie des Sols, U.A. CNRS 697, Université Lyon I, Villeurbanne F-69622 Cedex, France

    Pascal Simonet & René Bardin

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  1. Philippe Normand
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  2. Pascal Simonet
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  3. René Bardin
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Communicated by H. Hennecke

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Normand, P., Simonet, P. & Bardin, R. Conservation of nif sequences in Frankia . Mol Gen Genet 213, 238–246 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00339587

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00339587

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