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J. Bacteriol., Dec 1996, 7090-7098, Vol 178, No. 24
B Yang and TJ Larson
Aerobic sn-glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase is a cytoplasmic membrane-
associated respiratory enzyme encoded by the glpD gene of Escherichia coli.
The glpD operon is tightly controlled by cooperative binding of the glp
repressor to tandem operators (O(D)1 and O(D)2) that cover the - 10
promoter element and 30 bp downstream of the transcription start site. In
this work, two additional operators were identified within the glpD
structural gene at positions 568 to 587 (0(D)3) and 609 to 628 (0(D)4). The
two internal operators bound the glp repressor in the presence or absence
of the tandem operators (O(D)1 and O(D)2) in vitro, as shown by DNase I
footprinting. To assess a potential regulatory role for the two internal
operators in vivo, a glpD-lacZ transcriptional fusion containing all four
operators was constructed. The response of this fusion to the glp repressor
was compared with those of fusion constructs in which O(D)3 and O(D)4 were
inactivated by either deletion or site-directed mutagenesis. It was found
that the repression conferred by binding of the glp repressor to O(D)1 and
O(D)2 was increased five- to sevenfold upon introduction of the internal
operators. A regulatory role for HU was suggested when it was found that
repressor-mediated control of glpD transcription was increased fourfold in
strains containing HU compared with that of strains deficient in HU. The
effect of HU was apparent only in the presence of all four glpD operators.
The results suggest that glpD is controlled by formation of a repression
loop between the tandem and internal operators. HU may assist repression by
bending the DNA to facilitate loop formation.
Copyright © 1996, American Society for Microbiology
Action at a distance for negative control of transcription of the glpD gene encoding sn-glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase of Escherichia coli K-12
Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg 24061-0308, USA.
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