Bacillus subtilis GlnR contains an autoinhibitory C-terminal domain required for the interaction with glutamine synthetase

The Bacillus subtilis GlnR transcription factor regulates gene expression in response to changes in nitrogen availability. Glutamine synthetase transmits the nitrogen regulatory signal to GlnR. The DNA-binding activity of GlnR is activated by a transient protein-protein interaction with feedback-inhibited glutamine synthetase that stabilizes GlnR-DNA complexes. This signal transduction mechanism was analysed by creating mutant GlnR proteins with partial or complete truncations of their C-terminal domains. The truncated GlnR proteins were found to constitutively repress gene expression in vivo. This constitutive repression did not require glutamine synthetase. Purified mutant GlnR proteins bound DNA in vitro more tightly than wild-type GlnR protein and this binding was not activated by feedback-inhibited glutamine synthetase. While full-length GlnR is monomeric, the truncated GlnR proteins contained significant levels of dimers. These results indicate that the C-terminal region of GlnR acts as an autoinhibitory domain that prevents GlnR dimerization and thus impedes DNA binding. The GlnR C-terminal domain is also required for the interaction between GlnR and feedback-inhibited glutamine synthetase. Compared with the full-length GlnR protein, the truncated GlnR proteins were defective in their interaction with feedback-inhibited glutamine synthetase in cross-linking experiments.