Resistance to vanadium in Pseudomonas fluorescens ATCC 17400 caused by mutations in TCA cycle enzymes

Vanadium inhibits the growth of Pseudomonas fluorescens ATCC 17400 in the low-iron casamino acids medium and even more when iron is added to the medium. Analysis of transposon mutants allowed the isolation of two mutants with increased resistance to vanadium. One mutant had an insertion in the idh gene coding for the tricarboxylic acid enzyme isocitrate dehydrogenase. The second mutant had the transposon inserted into acnD, one out of three genes coding for a 2-methyl-isocitrate dehydratase (aconitase). In this mutant, there was a higher level of acnB aconitase transcripts while the levels of acnA transcripts were unchanged. A nonpolar idh mutant was obtained, which showed the same level of resistance against vanadium as the original transposon mutant.