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At least 415 records · Page 23Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Marking the rhizopseudomonas strain 7NSK2 with a Mu d(lac) element for ecological studies.

The mini Mu element Mu dII1681, which contains the lac operon genes and a kanamycin resistance gene, was inserted in the chromosome of plant growth-beneficial Pseudomonas aeruginosa 7NSK2 to construct a marked strain (MPB1). In MPB1, beta-galactosidase is permanently expressed under the culture conditions used. The MPB1 strain could be recovered with an efficiency of about 100% from a sandy loam soil on 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside medium containing sebacic acid and kanamycin. The limit of detection is about 10 CFU/g of soil. A detailed comparison was made between the wild-type strain 7NSK2 and the Mu dII1681-containing MPB1 strain. The results showed that no genes essential for growth, siderophore production, survival in sterile and nonsterile conditions, plant growth stimulation, or root colonization had been damaged in the MPB1 strain, which means that MPB1 can reliably be used for ecological studies in soil. MPB1 survived well at 4 or 28 degrees C but died off relatively rapidly in air-dried soil or at subzero temperatures. In these conditions, however, the MPB1 strain did not completely disappear from the soil but survived at a very low level of about 100 CFU/g of soil for more than 3 months. This observation stresses the need for very sensitive counting methods for ecological studies and for the evaluation of released microorganisms. Maize was inoculated with MPB1 via seed inoculation or soil inoculation. Upon seed inoculation, only the upper root parts were effectively colonized, while soil inoculation resulted in a complete colonization of the root system.

Ecology↗
PubMed1970

Fusions of the lac and trp Regions of the Escherichia coli Chromosome.

Two classes of strains were studied in which the lac operon is transposed to a chromosomal site close to the tonB and trp loci. The two classes differ in the orientation of the lac region on the chromosome. In both types of strains, tonB mutants were selected in which deletions removing the tonB locus also caused a fusion of the lac and trp regions. The study of the properties of such fusion strains provides information on the control of both the lac and trp operons.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1969

The stimulatory effect of cyclic adenosine 3'5'-monophosphate on DNA-directed synthesis of beta-galactosidase in a cell-free system.

A cell-free system allowing for synthesis of beta-galactosidase enzymatic activity has been developed. This system requires DNA containing the beta-galactosidase gene, a cell-free extract of Escherichia coli bacteria, and the low-molecular-weight components necessary for transcription of the DNA and translation of the resulting messenger RNA. Such a system is useful for studying enzyme synthesis, as well as its regulation. The gene for beta-galactosidase is part of the lac operon whose expression is under the control of the lac repressor. In whole cells the lac repressor inhibits almost all of the gene expression for beta-galactosidase. In the cell-free system, we had previously been able to repress about half the gene expression. Adding cyclic adenosine 3'5'-monophosphate to the cell-free system improved the yield of beta-galactosidase enzymatic activity by 8 to 30 times and the efficiency of repression from 50 to 95 per cent.

Adenine Nucleotides↗
PubMed1978

New regulatory mutations affecting the expression of the threonine operon in Escherichia coli K-12.

The promoter of the threonine operon was joined to the structural genes of the lac operon in Escherichia coli K 12. The synthesis of beta-galactosidase was thus repressed by threonine plus isoleucine in the fusion strains. To isolate mutations which affect the expression of the threonine operon, alterations in the level of expression of the lacZ gene were selected. A new type of regulatory mutation was discovered.

Escherichia coli↗
PubMed2005

DEMSIM: a discrete event based mechanistic simulation platform for gene expression and regulation dynamics.

In this paper, a discrete event based mechanistic simulation platform DEMSIM is developed for testing and validating putative regulatory interactions. The proposed framework models the main processes in gene expression, which are transcription, translation and decay processes, as stand-alone modules while superimposing the regulatory circuitry to obtain an accurate time evolution of the system. The stochasticity inherent to gene expression and regulation processes is captured using Monte Carlo based sampling. The proposed framework is applied to the extensively studied lac operon system, the SOS response system and the araBAD operon system of Escherichia coli. The results for the lac gene system demonstrate the simulation framework's ability to capture the dynamics of gene regulation, whereas the results for the SOS response system indicate that the framework is able to make accurate predictions about system behavior in response to perturbations. Finally, simulation studies for the araBAD system suggest that the developed framework is able to distinguish between different plausible regulatory mechanisms postulated to explain observed gene expression profiles. Overall, the obtained results highlight the effectiveness of DEMSIM at describing the underlying biological processes involved in gene regulation for querying alternative regulatory hypotheses.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Analysis of the effect exerted by extracellular pH on the maltose regulon in Escherichia coli K-12.

The Escherichia coli maltose regulon consists of five operons under the control of the MalT transcriptional activator. lac operon fusions were constructed in vitro with the MalT-dependent promoter and with the malT promoter itself. beta-Galactosidase activity displayed by these fusions during growth at different external pH (pHo) revealed that growth at a pHo higher than 6 stimulates the transcription of malT- and MalT-controlled genes in the absence or presence of maltose. Using a malTp1 malTp10 promoter that is cAMP-CRP (cAMP receptor protein)-independent, it was demonstrated that CRP is essential for malT pHo regulation and that the pHo-dependent activity of malKp is a direct consequence of malT regulation. The pHo regulation displayed by a deleted but still functional malT promoter fused to lacZ demonstrates that this minimal promoter contains all the regulatory regions for establishing pHo regulation. In the absence of MIc, a repressor of malT expression, the pHo regulation of malT was still effective. It is proposed that binding of cAMP-CRP at malTp may be affected by malTp topology induced by pHo or that a pHo-dependent effector may act in concert with the cAMP-CRP complex.

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters↗
PubMed1988

Isolation, characterization, and cloning of a plasmid-borne gene encoding a phosphotransferase that confers high-level amikacin resistance in enteric bacilli.

Clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Serratia marcescens at a hospital that had used amikacin as its principal aminoglycoside for the preceding 42 months demonstrated high-level resistance to amikacin (greater than or equal to 256 micrograms/ml), kanamycin (greater than or equal to 256 micrograms/ml), gentamicin (greater than or equal to 64 micrograms/ml), netilmicin (64 micrograms/ml), and tobramycin (greater than or equal to 16 micrograms/ml). The resistant strains contained an identical 6.8-kilobase plasmid, pRPG101. Transformation of pRPG101 into Escherichia coli produced high-level resistance to amikacin (greater than or equal to 256 micrograms/ml) and kanamycin (greater than or equal to 256 micrograms/ml) but unchanged susceptibilities to gentamicin, netilmicin, and tobramycin. The clinical isolates and transformants produced a novel 3'-phosphotransferase, APH(3'), that modified amikacin and kanamycin in vitro. The location and orientation of the amk gene encoding this APH(3') were determined by analysis of insertions in pRPG101 of the defective gene fusion phage Mu dII1681 (mini-Mulac). Cells containing plasmids with insertions into amk that had the lac operon fused to the amk promoter were selected as Lac+ and amikacin susceptible. A collection of these mini-Mulac insertions was mapped by restriction enzyme analysis. This characterization of amk facilitated its cloning as a 1.8-kilobase EcoRI-Bg/I fragment of pRPG101 into the pUC19 vector. E. coli strains containing this recombinant plasmid had APH(3') activity and demonstrated high-level resistance to amikacin and kanamycin (greater than or equal to 256 micrograms/ml) but were as susceptible to gentamicin, tobramycin, and netilmicin (less than or equal to 1.0 microgram/ml) as the strains harboring the original pRPG101 plasmid.

Amikacin↗
PubMed1982

Pseudocatabolite repression of type 1 fimbriae of Escherichia coli.

Previous work on the control of fimbriation in bacteria has demonstrated the importance of environmental factors such as static versus shaking broth and the absence versus the presence of glucose on the degree of fimbriation. When the Pil+ K-12 strain of Escherichia coli CSH50 was grown in static broth, the bacteria grown with glucose were less fimbriate (as determined by electron microscopy) than those grown without glucose. In contrast, a derivative, the pil-lac operon fusion strain VL361, gave off similar proportions of Lac+ and Lac- colonies when grown with or without glucose. Introduction of delta cya into either CSH50 or VL361 did not affect synthesis of either fimbriae or beta-galactosidase, respectively. When total synthesis of fimbriae by strain CSH50 was assayed, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent inhibition test, glucose-grown bacteria made less antigen when they were grown in static broth but not when they were grown in shaking broth. When results are taken together, we interpret them as showing that glucose does not suppress fimbrial synthesis by classic catabolite repression but rather merely prevents the outgrowth or fimbriate bacteria in static broth.

Acridine Orange↗
PubMed1973

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate-independent mutants of the lactose operon of Escherichia coli.

In Escherichia coli the transcription of the lactose operon, like other catabolite-sensitive operons, requires catabolite gene activator protein and 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate in addition to ribonucleic acid polymerase. We isolated and analyzed lac(+) revertants from a crp(-) strain of E. coli. We found that revertants with a higher level of expression only for the lac operon lie in the lac promoter region. These promoter mutations have no effect on operator or repressor function. Two of the revertants in which the lesions have been more precisely mapped carry mutations in the operator proximal segment of the promoter.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMedDate not supplied

How Escherichia coli sets different basal levels in SOS operons.

The recA and sfiA genes of Escherichia coli are SOS operons regulated negatively by the LexA repressor. The steady state level of expression of recA is 10-fold higher than that of sfiA, as measured by means of recA::lac and sfiA::lac operon fusions. To study the molecular basis of this difference, we have compared the expression of these two operons in strains in which the concentration of LexA repressor was normal (lexA+), zero (spr amber mutation) or higher than normal (plasmid pJL45, carrying the lexA gene linked to the lac promoter). The results indicate (i) that the recA promoter is about 4 times stronger than the sfiA promoter (as measured in the spr strains), (ii) that neither operon has a physiologically significant level of lexA-independent expression (pJL45 strains), and (iii) that the recA operator has about 2.5 times lower affinity than the sfiA operator for LexA repressor (comparison of lex+ and spr strains). Considering our previous results that the sfiA operon (high operator affinity of LexA) is derepressed very rapidly after inducing treatments and that the recA operon (low operator affinity) is repressed very rapidly when induction is stopped, we conclude that differences in operator affinity do not affect inducibility but serve only to set the basal levels of the different SOS functions.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed1971

New polarity suppressors in Escherichia coli: suppression and messenger RNA stability.

Two new polarity suppressors (Su27 and Su78) have been isolated in Escherichia coli. Both suppress polarity in the trp and lac operons, and neither shows codon specificity for suppression. Extreme polar mutants of the lac z gene that contain either Su27 or Su78 make mRNA from the entire operon; however, no active beta-galactosidase is translated from the z-gene messenger, and the amount of distal messenger is greater than would be expected from corresponding enzyme activities. Puromycin treatment of lac(+) strains mimics the effect of polar chain-termination mutations in destabilizing lac mRNA. This effect is completely reversed by Su27, and it is partially reversed by Su78. The results suggest that these suppressors act by stabilizing mRNA after premature termination of protein synthesis.

Acyltransferases↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Glucose transport system and regulation of gene expression in Escherichia coli].

The object of this work was to study the effect of mutations damaging protein components of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS) of E. coli on the regulation of the activity of catabolite-sensitive operons. Mutations ptsI and ptsH affecting the activity of the enzyme I and HPr protein made the synthesis of catabolite-sensitive enzymes resistant to the action of glucose, and at the same time decreased the rate of transport of this compound. Mutation tgl affecting the activity of the glucose enzyme II lead to the same effect on the enzyme syntheses, though utilization was not altered in this case. The disturbance of beta-galactosidase synthesis in ptsI and ptsH mutants is due to interference of pts mutations into transcription of the lac operon at the lac promoter level. It is concluded that the proteins of the Escherichia coli PTS take part not only in glucose transport, but are also involved in the regulation of transcription of the catabolite sensitive operons.

Biological Transport, Active↗
PubMed1982

Quantitative evaluation of recA gene expression in Escherichia coli.

A recA::lac operon fusion was constructed using the phage Mu d(Ap, lac) in Escherichia coli to obtain precise measurements of the level of recA gene expression in various genetic backgrounds. The RecA protein normally represents 0.02% of total protein. This value is known to increase dramatically after treatments interrupting DNA synthesis; kinetic experiments showed that the rate of recA expression increases 17-fold within 10 min after UV irradiation or thymine starvation. In mutants affected in SOS regulation or repair the following observations were made: (i) the tif-1 mutation in the recA gene does not alter the basal level of recA expression, suggesting that it improves the protease activity of RecA; (ii) the lexA3 mutation does not create a "super-repressor" of recA; (iii) the tsl-1 mutation in the lexA gene makes the LexA protein a poor repressor of recA at 30 degrees C (2.5-fold derepression) and a poor substrate for RecA protease (3-fold stimulation of recA expression by UV); (iv) the spr-55 amber mutation in the lexA gene causes a 30-fold increase in recA expression, higher than all inducing treatments, and this level cannot be further increased by nalidixic acid; (v) the zab-53 mutation at the recA locus, known to abolish tsl-mediated induction of recA expression, is trans-recessive and thus probably affects a regulatory site on the DNA; (vi) uvrA, B and C, recB and recF mutations do not increase the basal level of recA expression, suggesting that there are not sufficient spontaneous lesions to cause induction even when any one of these three repair pathways is inoperative.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed1988

Identification of a chromosomal gene controlling temperature-regulated expression of Shigella virulence.

Genes required for the full expression of Shigella virulence are on both the chromosome and a large virulence-associated plasmid. Expression of one or more virulence (vir) genes is temperature-regulated, wild-type strains being virulent (invasive) when grown at 37 degrees C but phenotypically avirulent (noninvasive) at 30 degrees C. A vir::lac operon fusion located on the virulence plasmid, which brings the lac genes under control of a temperature-regulated vir gene promoter, was used to select regulatory mutants constitutive for the Lac+ phenotype at the nonpermissive temperature. A transposon Tn10-induced mutant that was Lac+ at 30 degrees C and 37 degrees C was isolated, and the Tn10 insertion was transduced into a wild-type strain. The transductants all simultaneously became deregulated for virulence and invaded HeLa cells equally well at 30 degrees C and 37 degrees C. Other virulence-associated phenotypes were also deregulated and expressed at 30 degrees C. Southern hybridization with a probe for Tn10 determined the insertion to be on the chromosome. Fine mapping by transduction with phage P1L4 positioned the mutation between the galU and trp genes. A cosmid cloned fragment of Shigella chromosomal DNA containing the region around galU was used in complementation studies and showed that the closely linked regulatory gene was able to complement, in trans, the Tn10-induced mutation. We propose that this mutation defines a regulatory gene, virR, and that insertion of Tn10 into this gene inactivates a repressor that normally blocks expression of vir genes at 30 degrees C.

Bacterial Proteins↗
PubMed1973

The nucleotide sequence of the lactose messenger ribonucleic acid transcribed from the UV5 promoter mutant of Escherichia coli.

I have sequenced the first 63 bases of mRNA transcribed in vitro from the UV5 promoter mutant of the E. coli lactose operon. Sonic fragments of DNA, 1000 base pairs long and purified to contain only the lac operator-promoter region, were used as template. The UV5 promoter mutation allows transcription of the lac operon in the absence of catabolite activator protein and cAMP; lac repressor controls the synthesis of this RNA. I find that during synthesis, RNA polymerase pauses at particular sites along the DNA, naturally generating several discrete sizes of RNA that provide overlaps useful for sequencing. The UV5 lac mRNA initiates within the lac operator and copies the operator sequence. The AUG initiator codon for beta-galactosidase occurs at position 39 of the message. The sequence is: pppA-A-U-U-G-U-G-A-G-C-G-G-A-U-A-A-C-A-A-U-U-U- C-A-C-A-C-A-G-G-A-A-A-C-A-G-C-U-A-U-G-A-C-C-A-U- G-A-U-U-A-C-G-G-A-U-U-C-A-C-U-G-G.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1972

High-level production of -galactosidase by Escherichia coli merodiploids.

Two merodiploids of Escherichia coli that contain genes for the lac operon on both chromosome and episome were tested for production of lac enzymes after growth on various carbon sources. The specific activity of beta-galactosidase (and of thiogalactoside transacetylase) was about twice that from haploid cells when grown on glycerol. With succinate as carbon source, the specific activity increased by an additional factor of 3. Up to 25% of the soluble cell protein is beta-galactosidase in these strains, one of which is inducible and the other constitutive. The enzyme is purified easily in high yield by ammonium sulfate fractionation and electrophoresis.

Acetyltransferases↗
PubMed1987

Characterization of high-level expression and sequencing of the Escherichia coli K-12 cynS gene encoding cyanase.

Restriction fragments containing the gene encoding cyanase, cynS, without its transcriptional regulatory sequences were placed downstream of lac and tac promoters in various pUC derivatives to maximize production of cyanase. Plasmid pSJ105, which contains the cynS gene and an upstream open reading frame, gave the highest expression of cyanase. Approximately 50% of the total soluble protein in stationary-phase cultures of a lac-deleted strain containing plasmid pSJ105 was cyanase. The inserted DNA fragment of pSJ105 was transferred into pUC18 derivatives that contain a hybrid tac promoter, instead of the lac promoter, and a strong terminator to generate pSJ124. Stationary-phase cultures of JM101 containing plasmid pSJ124 overexpressed a similar level of cyanase. In JM101(pSJ124), maximum production of cyanase could be obtained either by induction with isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) for 3 h or by growth without IPTG into late stationary phase. The latter conditions resulted in a 10- to 20-fold increase in plasmid content and presumably titration of the lac repressor. The nucleotide sequence of the cloned cynS gene from Escherichia coli K-12 was determined. The predicted amino acid sequence differed from the known amino acid sequence of cyanase isolated from a B strain by four residues. However, overexpressed cyanase was purified to homogeneity, and a comparison of the enzymes from the two sources indicated that they did not differ with respect to physical and kinetic properties. The cynS gene was located next to the lac operon, and the direction of cynS transcription was opposite that of lac.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1974

Residual polarity and transcription-translation coupling during recovery from chloramphenicol or fusidic acid.

Fusidic acid or chloramphenicol was used to inhibit peptide synthesis to 1% of normal in Escherichia coli B, strain AS19. After 10 min of inhibition, peptide synthesis could be quickly restored to 80% of the normal rate after washing the bacteria on a filter. However, even in the presence of adenosine 3'-5'-cyclic-monophosphoric acid to block catabolite repression, beta-galactosidase, the first enzyme of the lactose operon (lac), could only be induced to 10% of normal, and the last enzyme of the operon, galactoside acetyltransferase, even less. The first and last enzymes of the operon for tryptophan synthesis could be derepressed to about 30% of normal. The lac ribonucleic acid (RNA) induced during recovery showed a smaller than normal size distribution on sucrose gradients. The operator-proximal or -distal parts of this RNA were specifically labeled. Hybridization to phi80dlac deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) suggested that although the distal parts of the lac RNA were barely detectable, initiation was occurring at normal rates in recovery. Either normal levels of distal messenger RNA (mRNA) are made but then rapidly degraded or the mRNA is not completed. The small amount that is made decayed abnormally slowly, probably as a result of slower transcription. Total mRNA decay was multiphasic with all components decaying slower than normal. We propose that there is a residual level of inhibition of peptide synthesis during recovery. The probability that a ribosome is blocked at any codon can be estimated from the data. The longer the message, the less likely its complete translation. We propose that the RNA polymerase can transcribe translatable mRNA for only a finite distance beyond the lead ribosome. Because ribosomes can load at the start of each message in a polycistronic mRNA, the probability that a distal message will be synthesized and translated is a function of the number of more proximal messages and the distances between their ribosome-loading sites.

Acetyltransferases↗