%0 Journal Article %A Switzer, Amy %A Evangelopoulos, Dimitrios %A Figueira, Rita %A de Carvalho, Luiz Pedro S. %A Brown, Daniel R. %A Wigneshweraraj, Sivaramesh %T A novel regulatory factor affecting the transcription of methionine biosynthesis genes in Escherichia coli experiencing sustained nitrogen starvation %D 2018 %J Microbiology, %V 164 %N 11 %P 1457-1470 %@ 1465-2080 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.000683 %K transcription repressor %K MetJ %K Escherichia coli %K transcription regulation %K nitrogen starvation %K methionine biosynthesis %I Microbiology Society, %X The initial adaptive transcriptional response to nitrogen (N) starvation in Escherichia coli involves large-scale alterations to the transcriptome mediated by the transcriptional activator, NtrC. One of these NtrC-activated genes is yeaG, which encodes a conserved bacterial kinase. Although it is known that YeaG is required for optimal survival under sustained N starvation, the molecular basis by which YeaG benefits N starved E. coli remains elusive. By combining transcriptomics with targeted metabolomics analyses, we demonstrate that the methionine biosynthesis pathway becomes transcriptionally dysregulated in ΔyeaG bacteria experiencing sustained N starvation. It appears the ability of MetJ, the master transcriptional repressor of methionine biosynthesis genes, to effectively repress transcription of genes under its control is compromised in ΔyeaG bacteria under sustained N starvation, resulting in transcriptional derepression of MetJ-regulated genes. Although the aberrant biosynthesis does not appear to be a contributing factor for the compromised viability of ΔyeaG bacteria experiencing sustained N starvation, this study identifies YeaG as a novel regulatory factor in E. coli affecting the transcription of methionine biosynthesis genes under sustained N starvation. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.000683