Role of alanine-valine transaminase in Salmonella typhimurium and analysis of an avtA::Tn5 mutant.

In Salmonella typhimurium, as in Escherichia coli, mutations in avtA, the gene encoding the alanine-valine transaminase (transaminase C), are silent unless they are combined with mutations involved in isoleucine-valine biosynthesis. avtA is repressed by leucine or alanine but not by valine. Transaminase C is found at reduced levels upon starvation for any one of several amino acids. We hypothesize that this is due to repression of avtA by the elevated alanine and leucine pools found in amino acid-starved cells.