title: Conformational changes induced by integration host factor at origin gamma of R6K and copy number control.
abstract: We have investigated the role of integration host factor (IHF) in the replication of plasmid R6K by studying the maintainance of the plasmid in a strain of Escherichia coli that lacks both subunits of IHF and in an isogenic wild type strain and found that all three origins, alpha, beta, and gamma, were functional in the absence of IHF; however, loss of IHF reduced the copy number of those replicons initiating solely from ori gamma by 5-fold. Concomitant loss of direct repeats within the origin that bind the R6K replication initiator protein, Pi, resulted in a further reduction in copy number. Using gel mobility shift analysis, we showed that IHF bound specifically only to one site within the A/T rich region of the minimal origin adjacent to the Pi binding sites. The origin region possessed no intrinsic DNA curvature although IHF induced a strong bend upon binding. Combination footprinting with different orders of addition of Pi and IHF suggested that there was no cooperativity between the two proteins with regard to DNA binding. Hydroxyl-radical footprinting revealed hypersensitive asymmetric periodic cleavage sites within the origin region in the presence of IHF that extended over 200 base pairs and a localized perturbation of cleavage chemistry. The presence of periodic cleavages was dependent upon the presence of the wild type R6K origin sequence and was not observed when the IHF binding site was positioned adjacent to a heterologous sequence. We observed that the conformational changes induced by IHF upon binding to the R6K origin were negatively correlated with the observed decrease in copy number, and therefore, origin conformation altered by protein-DNA interaction may play an important role in the regulation of replication initiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710.
authors.forename: W L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Kelley
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bastia
mesh_terms: D001345:Autoradiography; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004261:DNA Replication; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000096:biosynthesis; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D006878:Hydroxides; D017665:Hydroxyl Radical; D034982:Integration Host Factors; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids; D012093:Replicon
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D006878:Hydroxides; D034982:Integration Host Factors; D017665:Hydroxyl Radical