title: Organization and expression of a Thermus thermophilus arginine cluster: presence of unidentified open reading frames and absence of a Shine-Dalgarno sequence.
abstract: A group of genes regulated by arginine was found clustered in the order argF-ORF1-argC-argJ-ORF4 between other, as yet uncharacterized, open reading frames (ORFs). Transcription starts were identified immediately upstream from argF and ORF4. Arginine repressed transcription that was initiated at argF but induced transcription of ORF4. The functions of ORF1 and ORF4 are unknown, but analysis of the sequence of ORF4 suggests that it is a membrane protein, possibly involved in transport of arginine or a related metabolite. Mobility shift and DNase I footprinting have revealed specific binding of pure Escherichia coli ArgR to the promoter region of Thermus thermophilus argF. These results suggest that argF transcription is controlled by a repressor homologous to those characterized in enteric bacteria and bacilli. Thermus argF mRNA is devoid of Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequences. However, downstream from the ATG start codon of argF and many other Thermus genes (with or without an SD box), sequences were found to be complementary to nucleotides 1392 to 1409 of Thermus 16S rRNA, suggesting that an mRNA-rRNA base pairing in this region is important for correct translation initiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), 1070 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roovers
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Glansdorff
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001120:Arginine / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D016963:Thermus thermophilus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: C087018:ArgR protein, Bacteria; C490177:ArgR protein, E coli; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D001120:Arginine