title: Streptococcus pneumoniae possesses canonical Escherichia coli (sigma 70) promoters.
abstract: Seventeen DNA fragments from Streptococcus pneumoniae were randomly cloned in Escherichia coli with selection for promoter activity. The fragments were sequenced and the promoter locations were determined by primer extension analysis. Examination for sites similar to the E. coli major consensus promoter sequence revealed such a site in each of the seventeen fragments, located five to eight base pairs upstream of the point at which transcription was initiated in the E. coli host. Thus, the abundance of promoter activity found in pneumococcal DNA cloned in E. coli hosts arises primarily from sigma-70-type promoter structures. Combined with the observation that such sequences are usually found just upstream of, but not within, pneumococcal genes, this implies that one class (perhaps the major class) of pneumococcal promoters closely resembles the canonical E. coli promoter consensus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago 60680.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jaurin
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D013296:Streptococcus pneumoniae / Q000235:genetics*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial