Different Physiological Roles of ATP- and PPi-Dependent Phosphofructokinase Isoenzymes in the Methylotrophic Actinomycete Amycolatopsis methanolica

Cells of the actinomycete Amycolatopsis methanolica grown on glucose possess only a single, exclusively PPi-dependent phosphofructokinase (PPi-PFK) (A. M. C. R. Alves, G. J. W. Euverink, H. J. Hektor, J. van der Vlag, W. Vrijbloed, D.H.A. Hondmann, J. Visser, and L. Dijkhuizen, J. Bacteriol. 176:6827-6835, 1994). When this methylotrophic bacterium is grown on one-carbon (C-1) compounds (e.g., methanol), an ATP-dependent phosphofructokinase (ATP-PFK) activity is specifically induced, completely replacing the PPi-PFK. The two A. methanolica PFK isoenzymes have very distinct functions, namely, in the metabolism of C-6 and C-1 carbon substrates. This is the first report providing biochemical evidence for the presence and physiological roles of PPi-PFK and ATP-PFK isoenzymes in a bacterium. The novel ATP-PFK enzyme was purified to homogeneity and characterized in detail at the biochemical and molecular levels. The A. methanolica ATP-PFK and PPi-PFK proteins possess a low level of amino acid sequence similarity (24%), clearly showing that the two proteins are not the result of a gene duplication event. PPi-PFK is closely related to other (putative) actinomycete PFK enzymes. Surprisingly, the A. methanolica ATP-PFK is most similar to ATP-PFK from the protozoon Trypanosoma brucei and PPi-PFK proteins from the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi and Treponema pallidum, both spirochetes, very distinct from actinomycetes. The data thus suggest that A. methanolica obtained the ATP-PFK-encoding gene via a lateral gene transfer event.