ORIGINAL RESEARCH Paracoccus denitrificans possesses two BioR homologs having a role in regulation of biotin metabolism Youjun Feng1, Ritesh Kumar2, Dmitry A. Ravcheev3 & Huimin Zhang1,* 1Department of Medical Microbiology & Parasitology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China 2Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Houston, Texas 77030 3Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, 2, avenue de l’Universite, L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg. Keywords Abstract BioR, biotin, Paracoccus denitrificans. Recently, we determined that BioR, the GntR family of transcription factor, acts Correspondence as a repressor for biotin metabolism exclusively distributed in certain species of Youjun Feng, Department of Medical a-proteobacteria, including the zoonotic agent Brucella melitensis and the plant Microbiology & Parasitology, Zhejiang pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens. However, the scenario is unusual in Para- University School of Medicine (Zi-Jin-Gang coccus denitrificans, another closely related member of the same phylum a-proteo- Campus), No. 866, Yu-Hang-Tang Rd., bacteria featuring with denitrification. Not only does it encode two BioR Hangzhou City, Zhejiang 310058, China. Tel/Fax: +86 571 88208524; homologs Pden_1431 and Pden_2922 (designated as BioR1 and BioR2, respec- E-mail:
[email protected]. tively), but also has six predictive BioR-recognizable sites (the two bioR homolog each has one site, whereas the two bio operons (bioBFDAGC and bioYB) each con- tains two tandem BioR boxes). It raised the possibility that unexpected complex- Funding Information ity is present in BioR-mediated biotin regulation. Here we report that this is the This work was supported by the Zhejiang case. The identity of the purified BioR proteins (BioR1 and BioR2) was confirmed Provincial Natural Science Foundation for with LC-QToF-MS.