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Journal of Bacteriology, December 2002, p. 6734-6738, Vol. 184, No. 23
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.23.6734-6738.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

cis-Acting Sequences of Bacillus subtilis pyrG mRNA Essential for Regulation by Antitermination

Qi Meng and Robert L. Switzer*

Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Received 23 May 2002/ Accepted 5 August 2002

Expression of the Bacillus subtilis pyrG gene, which encodes CTP synthetase, is repressed by cytidine nucleotides. Regulation involves a termination-antitermination mechanism acting at a transcription terminator located within the 5' untranslated pyrG leader sequence. Deletion and substitution mutagenesis of a series of pyrG'-lacZ transcriptional fusions integrated into the B. subtilis chromosome demonstrated that only the terminator stem-loop and two specific 4- to 6-nucleotide RNA sequences were required for derepression of pyrG by starvation for cytidine nucleotides. The first sequence, GGGC/U, comprises the first four nucleotides at the 5' end of the pyrG transcript, and the second, GCUCCC, forms the first six nucleotides of the 5' strand of the terminator stem. All of the nucleotides lying between the two required RNA sequences can be deleted without loss of regulation. We propose that an as-yet-unidentified regulatory protein binds to these two RNA segments and prevents termination of transcription in the pyrG leader region when intracellular CTP levels are low.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois, 600 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801. Phone: (217) 333-3940. Fax: (217) 244-5858. E-mail: rswitzer{at}uiuc.edu.

Journal of Bacteriology, December 2002, p. 6734-6738, Vol. 184, No. 23
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.23.6734-6738.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Turnbough, C. L. Jr., Switzer, R. L. (2008). Regulation of Pyrimidine Biosynthetic Gene Expression in Bacteria: Repression without Repressors. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 72: 266-300 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Elsholz, A. K. W., Jorgensen, C. M., Switzer, R. L. (2007). The Number of G Residues in the Bacillus subtilis pyrG Initially Transcribed Region Governs Reiterative Transcription-Mediated Regulation. J. Bacteriol. 189: 2176-2180 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Meng, Q., Turnbough, C. L. Jr., Switzer, R. L. (2004). Attenuation control of pyrG expression in Bacillus subtilis is mediated by CTP-sensitive reiterative transcription. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101: 10943-10948 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Perego, M., Hoch, J. A., Barrett, J. F. (2004). Functional Genomics of Gram-Positive Microorganisms. J. Bacteriol. 186: 903-909 [Full Text]  
  • Jorgensen, C. M., Hammer, K., Martinussen, J. (2003). CTP Limitation Increases Expression of CTP Synthase in Lactococcus lactis. J. Bacteriol. 185: 6562-6574 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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