Mutants of Escherichia coli K12 Accumulating Porphobilinogen: a New Locus, hemC

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Abstract
Mutants of E. coli K12 which accumulated the heme precursor porphobilinogen are described. The mutants grew very slowly on C and energy sources which K12 uses only oxidatively, and they had low catalase activities, suggesting that they were deficient in heme. Extracts had 1/10 of the parental activity of the enzyme porphobilinogen deaminase. In transduction, the mutation mapped close to genes ilvD and metE at min 84. The gene was tentatively identified as hemC, coding for porphobilinogen deaminase. The gene symbol hemC replaces the earlier and temporary symbol popE.