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At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

The mercury resistance operon of the IncJ plasmid pMERPH exhibits structural and regulatory divergence from other Gram-negative mer operons.

The bacterial mercury resistance determinant carried on the IncJ plasmid pMERPH has been characterized further by DNA sequence analysis. From the sequence of a 4097 bp Bg/II fragment which confers mercury resistance, it is predicted that the determinant consists of the genes merT, merP, merC and merA. The level of DNA sequence similarity between these genes and those of the mer determinant of Tn21 was between 56 center dot 4 and 62 center dot 4%. A neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree of merA gene sequences was constructed which suggested that pMERPH bears the most divergent Gram-negative mer determinant characterized to date. Although the determinant from pMERPH has been shown to be inducible, no regulatory genes have been found within the Bg/II fragment and it is suggested that a regulatory gene may be located elsewhere on the plasmid. The cloned determinant has been shown to express mercury resistance constitutively. Analysis of the pMERPH mer operator/promoter (O/P) region in vivo has shown constitutive expression from the mer PTCPA promoter, which could be partially repressed by the presence of a trans-acting MerR protein from a Tn21-like mer determinant. This incomplete repression of mer PTCPA promoter activity may be due to the presence of an extra base between the -35 and -10 sequences of the promoter and/or to variation in the MerR binding sites in the O/P region. Expression from the partially repressed mer PTCPA promoter could be restored by the addition of inducing levels of Hg2+ ions. Using the polymerase chain reaction with primers designed to amplify regions in the merP and merA genes, 1 center dot 37 kb pMERPH-like sequences have been amplified from the IncJ plasmid R391, the environmental isolate SE2 and from DNA isolated directly from non-cultivated bacteria in River Mersey sediment. This suggests that pMERPH-like sequences, although rare, are nevertheless persistent in natural environments.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1982

Escherichia coli phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase operon: transcription studies of wild-type and mutated operons on multicopy plasmids.

The construction of three lambda bacteriophages containing parts of the structural gene for threonyl-tRNA synthetase, thrS, and those for the two subunits of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetases, pheS and pheT, is described. These phages were used as hybridization probes to measure the in vivo levels of mRNA specific to these three genes. Plasmid pB1 carries the three genes thrS, pheS, and pheT, and strains carrying the plasmid show enhanced levels of mRNA corresponding to these genes. Although the steady-state levels of threonyl-tRNA synthetase and phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase produced by the presence of the plasmid differed by a factor of 10, their pulse-labeled mRNA levels were about the same. Mutant derivatives of pB1 were also analyzed. Firstly, a cis-acting insertion located before the structural genes for phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase caused a major decrease in both pheS and pheT mRNA. Secondly, mutations affecting either structural gene pheS or pheT caused a reduction in the mRNA levels for both pheS and pheT. This observation suggests that autoregulation plays a role in the expression of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase.

Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases↗
PubMed1982

Fusions of flagellar operons to lactose genes on a mu lac bacteriophage.

Previous studies have defined 29 genes necessary for synthesis of the Escherichia coli flagellar apparatus. This study analyzed the transcriptional control of flagellar genes, using Mu d (Apr lac) phage to generate flagellar mutants by insertion. These mutants contained operon fusions of flagellar genes to the lac genes of the Mu d phage and allowed the measurement of flagellar operon expression by detection of beta-galactosidase activity. These fusion mutants expressed the enzyme activity constitutively, and an autogenous regulation mechanism was not revealed. Lambda transducing phages carrying these chromosomal fla-lac fusions were also isolated and used to examine the effect of different fla mutations on expression of each flagellar operon. The results showed that flagellar operons are divided into six classes; (class 1) the flbB operon, which controls all of the other flagellar operons; (class 2) the flaU and flbC operons, which are controlled by the flbB operon gene products and are not required for the expression of other Fla operons; (class 3) the flbA, flaG, flaD, flaN, flaB, and flaA operons, which are under flbB operon control and are required for the expression of other fla operons; (class4) the flaZ operon, which is controlled by the gene products of the group 1 and 3 operons and is required for hag transcription; (class 5) the mocha and flaS operons, which are controlled by the gene products of the group 1 and 3 operons; and (class 6) the hag operon. These results are discussed with respect to the possible assembly sequence of the fla gene products.

Coliphages↗
PubMed2005

Operon formation is driven by co-regulation and not by horizontal gene transfer.

The organization of bacterial genes into operons was originally ascribed to the benefits of co-regulation. More recently, the "selfish operon" model, in which operons are formed by repeated gain and loss of genes, was proposed. Indeed, operons are often subject to horizontal gene transfer (HGT). On the other hand, non-HGT genes are particularly likely to be in operons. To clarify whether HGT is involved in operon formation, we identified recently formed operons in Escherichia coli K12. We show that genes that have homologs in distantly related bacteria but not in close relatives of E. coli--indicating HGT--form new operons at about the same rates as native genes. Furthermore, genes in new operons are no more likely than other genes to have phylogenetic trees that are inconsistent with the species tree. In contrast, essential genes and ubiquitous genes without paralogs--genes believed to undergo HGT rarely--often form new operons. We conclude that HGT is not a cause of operon formation but instead promotes the prevalence of pre-existing operons. To explain operon formation, we propose that new operons reduce the amount of regulatory information required to specify optimal expression patterns and infer that operons should be more likely to evolve than independent promoters when regulation is complex. Consistent with this hypothesis, operons have greater amounts of conserved regulatory sequences than do individually transcribed genes.

Escherichia coli K12↗
PubMed2004

Divergence and redundancy of 16S rRNA sequences in genomes with multiple rrn operons.

The level of sequence heterogeneity among rrn operons within genomes determines the accuracy of diversity estimation by 16S rRNA-based methods. Furthermore, the occurrence of widespread horizontal gene transfer (HGT) between distantly related rrn operons casts doubt on reconstructions of phylogenetic relationships. For this study, patterns of distribution of rrn copy numbers, interoperonic divergence, and redundancy of 16S rRNA sequences were evaluated. Bacterial genomes display up to 15 operons and operon numbers up to 7 are commonly found, but approximately 40% of the organisms analyzed have either one or two operons. Among the Archaea, a single operon appears to dominate and the highest number of operons is five. About 40% of sequences among 380 operons in 76 bacterial genomes with multiple operons were identical to at least one other 16S rRNA sequence in the same genome, and in 38% of the genomes all 16S rRNAs were invariant. For Archaea, the number of identical operons was only 25%, but only five genomes with 21 operons are currently available. These considerations suggest an upper bound of roughly threefold overestimation of bacterial diversity resulting from cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes from the environment; however, the inclusion of genomes with a single rrn operon may lower this correction factor to approximately 2.5. Divergence among operons appears to be small overall for both Bacteria and Archaea, with the vast majority of 16S rRNA sequences showing <1% nucleotide differences. Only five genomes with operons with a higher level of nucleotide divergence were detected, and Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis exhibited the highest level of divergence (11.6%) noted to date. Overall, four of the five extreme cases of operon differences occurred among thermophilic bacteria, suggesting a much higher incidence of HGT in these bacteria than in other groups.

Gene Dosage↗