title: Cold-sensitive phenotype of Escherichia coli cells harboring a plasmid carrying the kil gene of phage lambda brought under control of cI857 gene promoters.
abstract: A plasmid (pI-14), containing part of the phage lambda control region (EcoRI-D fragment of lambda cI857) with a large deletion between genes rex and kil, confers a cold-sensitive (cs) phenotype on the host bacteria, whereas the parent plasmid (pMM200) without the deletion made the host bacteria (Escherichia coli strain DOO) high-temperature sensitive. This phenomenon could be explained on the basis of the sequence analysis of the deletion. Upon this deletion, the lambda kil gene, which was originally under the control of the pL promoter, was brought under the control of the lambda cI promoters, resulting in the reversal of the host cell response to temperature. This example shows that gene circuits showing diametrically opposite responses to environmental factors (in this case, temperature) can be constructed from the same elements when the effector gene (here, kil) is connected in different ways to the sensor gene (here, cI857). This cold-dependent killing activity was also dependent on the crp+ state of the host.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Kansai Medical University, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugino
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morita
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003080:Cold Temperature; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D011953:Receptors, Cyclic AMP / Q000235:genetics; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014169:Transformation, Bacterial
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D011953:Receptors, Cyclic AMP; D012097:Repressor Proteins; C069003:kil protein, E coli