title: Identification of novel intergenic repetitive units in a mycobacterial two-component system operon.
abstract: Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units (MIRUs), a novel class of repeated sequences, were identified within the intercistronic region of an operon coding for a mycobacterial two-component system, named senX3-regX3. Southern blot analysis and homology searches revealed the presence of several homologous sequences in intergenic regions dispersed throughout the genomes of Mycobacterium bovis BCG, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae. These could be grouped into three major families, containing elements of 77-101 bp, 46-53 bp and 58-101 bp. Based on the available mycobacterial sequences, the total number of MIRUs is estimated to be about 40-50 per genome. Similar to previously identified small repetitive sequences, the MIRUs of the two-component operon are transcribed on a polycistronic mRNA. Unlike previously identified small repetitive sequences, however, MIRUs do not contain dyad symmetries, comprise small open reading frames (ORFs) whose extremities overlap those of the contiguous ORFs and are oriented in the same translational direction as those of the adjacent genes. Analyses of the sequences at the insertion sites suggest that MIRUs disseminate by transposition into DTGA sites involved in translational coupling in polycistronic operons.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Microbiologie Génétique et Moléculaire, INSERM U447, Institut Pasteur de Lille, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Supply
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Magdalena
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Himpens
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Locht
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D015870:Gene Expression; D005796:Genes; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009161:Mycobacterium / Q000235:genetics*; D009163:Mycobacterium bovis / Q000235:genetics; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics; D009876:Operon; D010770:Phosphotransferases; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; C110608:RegX3 protein, Mycobacterium; D010770:Phosphotransferases; C110607:SenX3 protein, Mycobacterium