Stabilization of a HemA-LacZ hybrid protein against proteolysis during carbon starvation in atp mutants of Salmonella typhimurium

Transposon insertions that stabilize the beta-galactosidase activity of a HemA-LacZ hybrid protein following carbon starvation were mapped to the atp operon of Salmonella typhimurium. This effect is similar to that seen with nuo mutants defective in the energy-conserving type I NADH dehydrogenase. Insertions in several other genes, including such highly pleiotropic mutants as rpoS, polA, and hfq, were isolated with the same phenotypic screen, but they do not affect the beta-galactosidase activity of HemA-LacZ. All of these mutants act indirectly to alter the colony color of many different fusion strains on indicator plates.