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research-article

Regulation of the macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B resistance gene ermD.

Department of Biochemistry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029.

ABSTRACT

The erythromycin resistance gene ermD, which encodes an rRNA methylase protein, has an unusually long leader region (354 nucleotides). Previously, a single promoter-proximal leader peptide coding sequence was recognized from the nucleotide sequence, and erythromycin-induced ribosome stalling in this sequence was proposed to be required for the induction of methylase translation. We characterized spontaneously occurring and in vitro-constructed leader region mutations in an effort to understand the function of various segments of the long ermD leader region. A second leader peptide coding sequence was identified, and the location of insertion and point mutations that expressed ermD methylase constitutively suggested that translation of the second leader peptide is controlled by ribosome stalling in the first leader peptide. From Northern RNA blot analysis of ermD transcription, it appears that regulation of ermD expression is not by transcriptional attenuation.

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• Min, Y.-H., Kwon, A.-R., Yoon, E.-J., Shim, M.-J., Choi, E.-C. (2008). Translational Attenuation and mRNA Stabilization as Mechanisms of erm(B) Induction by Erythromycin. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 52: 1782-1789 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Bozdogan, B., Galopin, S., Leclercq, R. (2004). Characterization of a New erm-Related Macrolide Resistance Gene Present in Probiotic Strains of Bacillus clausii. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70: 280-284 [Abstract] [Full Text]