Binding motifs in bacterial gene promoters modulate transcriptional effect of global regulators
- ORNL
Bacterial gene regulation involves transcription factors (TFs) that influence the expression of many genes. Global regulators, including CRP (cAMP Receptor Protein), ArcA, and FNR, can modulate the transcriptional activity of multiple operons. The similarity of a regulatory element s sequence to a TF s consensus binding site (BS) and the position of the regulatory element in an operon promoter are considered the most important determinants of this TF s regulatory influence. In this study we explore the hypothesis that the number of TFBS half-sites (where a half-site is one half of the palindromic BS consensus sequence, which we shall refer to as a binding motif or a BM) of a global regulator in an operon s promoter plays an important role in the operon s transcriptional regulation. We examine empirical data from transcriptional profiling of the CRP regulon in Shewanella oneidenses MR 1 and Escherichia coli, and of the ArcA regulon in S. oneidenses MR 1. We compare the power of CRP BM counts and of full, symmetrical CRP TFBS characteristics, namely similarity to consensus and location, to predict CRP-induced transcriptional activity. We find that CRP BM counts have a nonlinear effect on CRP-dependent transcriptional activity and predict this activity better than full-length TFBS quality or location. Regression analysis indicates that IHF (Integration Host Factor) and ArcA have synergistic effects on CRP-induced gene transcription, positive and negative, respectively. Based on these results, we propose that the fine-tuning of bacterial transcriptional activity by CRP may involves not only the bending of the operon promoter, facilitated by CRP in cooperation with the histone-like protein IHF, but also the cumulative binding affinity of multiple weak BMs.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1049773
- Journal Information:
- Gene Regulation and Systems Biology, Vol. 2012:6; ISSN 1177-6250
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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