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Journal of Bacteriology, February 2000, p. 689-695, Vol. 182, No. 3
Department of Microbiology, Lund University,
Sölvegatan 12, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden
Received 30 July 1999/Accepted 18 October 1999
Expression of the Bacillus subtilis glpD gene, which
encodes glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) dehydrogenase, is controlled by
termination or antitermination of transcription. The untranslated
leader sequence of glpD contains an inverted
repeat that gives rise to a transcription terminator. In the presence
of G3P, the antiterminator protein GlpP binds to
glpD leader mRNA and promotes readthrough of the terminator. Certain mutations in the inverted repeat of the
glpD leader result in GlpP-independent,
temperature-sensitive (TS) expression of glpD.
The TS phenotype is due to temperature-dependent degradation of the
glpD mRNA. In the presence of GlpP, the
glpD mRNA is stabilized. glpD
leader-lacZ fusions were integrated into the chromosomes of
B. subtilis and Escherichia coli. Determination of steady-state levels of fusion mRNA in B. subtilis showed
that the stability of the fusion mRNA is determined by the
glpD leader part. Comparison of steady-state levels and
half-lives of glpD leader-lacZ fusion mRNA in
B. subtilis and E. coli revealed significant differences. A glpD leader-lacZ fusion
transcript that was unstable in B. subtilis was
considerably more stable in E. coli. GlpP, which stabilizes
the transcript in B. subtilis, did not affect its stability
in E. coli. Primer extension analysis showed that the
glpD leader-lacZ fusion transcript is processed
differently in B. subtilis and in E. coli. The
dominating cleavage site in E. coli was barely detectable
in B. subtilis. This site was shown to be a target of
E. coli RNase III.
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Different Processing of an mRNA Species in
Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli
and
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, S-223 62 Lund,
Sweden. Phone: 46 46 2224980. Fax: 46 46 157839. E-mail:
martin.persson{at}mikrbiol.lu.se.
Present address: Department of Infectious Diseases and Medical
Microbiology, Division of Bacteriology, Lund University,
Sölvegatan 23, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden.
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