Atomic force microscopy proposes a novel model for stem-loop structure that binds a heat shock protein in the Staphylococcus aureus HSP70 operon.
The Staphylococcus aureus HSP70 operon produces a polycistronic RNA in response to heat shock, and ORF37 is the first protein to be translated. The promoter of this operon contains a palindromic nucleotide sequence that may form a stem-loop structure. Structural analysis of the promoter regions by atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed a quadruplet that consists of a pair of stem-loops. A novel "SL2S' (Stem-Loop-Loop-Stem) model was proposed for this structure. AFM also revealed the binding of ORF37 to the quadruplet, establishing a molecular mechanism for this heat shock gene expression; ORF37 acts as a regulator by binding to the SL2S structure in the promoter.
Ohta
T
T
Department of Microbiology, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Nettikadan
S
S
Tokumasu
F
F
Ideno
H
H
Abe
Y
Y
Kuroda
M
M
Hayashi
H
H
Takeyasu
K
K
D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods; D008961:Models, Structural; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D009876:Operon; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000096:biosynthesis; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins; D012329:RNA, Bacterial