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Journal of Bacteriology, February 2009, p. 773-781, Vol. 191, No. 3
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01299-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Streptomyces Telomeres Contain a Promoter{triangledown}

Yuh-ru Lin,1,§ Mi-Young Hahn,2,# Jung-Hye Roe,2 Tzu-Wen Huang,1 Hsiu-Hui Tsai,1 Yung-Feng Lin,1 Tsung-Sheng Su,1,3,4 Yu-Jiun Chan,5 and Carton W. Chen1*

Department of Life Sciences and Institute of Genome Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Shih-Pai, Taipei 112, Taiwan,1 School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, South Korea,2 Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, National Yang-Ming University, Shih-Pai, Taipei 112, Taiwan,3 Department of Medical Research and Education, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Shih-Pai, Taipei 112, Taiwan,4 Division of Clinical Virology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Shih-Pai, Taipei 112, Taiwan5

Received 16 September 2008/ Accepted 19 November 2008

Bidirectional replication of the linear chromosomes and plasmids of Streptomyces spp. results in single-strand overhangs at their 3' ends, which contain extensive complex palindromic sequences. The overhangs are believed to be patched by DNA synthesis primed by a terminal protein that remains covalently bound to the 5' ends of the telomeres. We discovered that in vitro a conserved 167-bp telomere DNA binds strongly to RNA polymerase holoenzyme and exhibits promoter activities stronger than those of an rRNA operon. In vivo, the telomere DNA exhibited promoter activity in both orientations on a circular plasmid in Streptomyces. The telomere promoter is also active on a linear plasmid during exponential growth. Such promoter activity in a telomere has not hitherto been observed in eukaryotic or prokaryotic replicons. Streptomyces telomere promoters may be involved in priming the terminal Okazaki fragment (during replication) replicative transfer (during conjugation), or expression of downstream genes (including a conserved ttrA helicase-like gene involved in conjugal transfer). Interestingly, the Streptomyces telomeres also function as a promoter in Escherichia coli and as a transcription enhancer in yeast.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Life Sciences and Institute of Genome Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Shih-Pai, Taipei 112, Taiwan. Phone: 886-2-2826-7040. Fax: 886-2-2826-4930. E-mail: cwchen{at}ym.edu.tw

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 5 December 2008.

§ Present address: Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854.

# Present address: Genome Research Center for Respiratory Pathogens, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, South Korea.

Journal of Bacteriology, February 2009, p. 773-781, Vol. 191, No. 3
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01299-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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