maturation of the [NiFe] hydrogenase involves assembly of nonproteinaceous ligands on the large subunit by accessory proteins encoded by the hyp operon, HypE is an essential accessory protein and participates in the synthesis of two cyano groups found in the large subunit
putative regulators of hox gene expression sll0359 is induced in light to a similar extent as hoxU, hoxY and hoxH. The transcriptional regulator lexA shows the opposite expression pattern than that of the hox genes, since it is induced in darkness by up to 3fold. When cells in microaerobic conditions are transferred to darkness the transcript levels of hoxE and hoxF are further increased
the hydrogenase maturation protein HypE catalyzes the synthesis of the CN ligand of the active-site iron of the [NiFe] hydrogenase using carbamoyl phosphate and ATP as substrates (HypE dehydrates the S-carbamoyl moiety by an ATP-dependent reaction to produce HypE-thiocyanate)