title: The structural basis of the high in vivo strength of the rRNA P2 promoter of Escherichia coli.
abstract: Ribosomal RNA promoters of Escherichia coli are probably the strongest promoters in vivo and they can be used on plasmid vectors to express protein-coding sequences at a high rate. In fact, the P2 promoter of the rrnB gene is stronger (in vivo) than the tac promoter, which has a perfect consensus sequence. Conversion of the rrnB P2 promoter sequence to consensus significantly increases in vivo promoter strength. The removal of four nucleotides downstream of the -10 region also increases the strength of this promoter. On the other hand, shifting of the A + T-rich region upstream of this promoter by an 11-bp insertion drastically decreases in vivo activity. It is concluded that the two functionally important hexanucleotide sequences, -35 and -10, are necessary but not sufficient factors for the optimalization of in vivo promoter strength.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Center, Szeged, Hungary.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lukacsovich
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gaal
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Venetianer
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D007763:Lac Operon; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010957:Plasmids; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics*; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D012335:RNA, Ribosomal