title: Atomic force microscopy proposes a novel model for stem-loop structure that binds a heat shock protein in the Staphylococcus aureus HSP70 operon.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nettikadan
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tokumasu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ideno
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takeyasu
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins; D012329:RNA, Bacterial