The upstream sequence of Mycobacterium leprae 18-kDa gene confers transcription repression activity in orientation-independent manner.
In order to understand the role of the upstream region of the Mycobacterium leprae 18-kDa gene on the gene regulation, the region was divided into two at the -50 position from the first start codon of the gene and their effect on transcription was examined by using a LacZ transcriptional reporter gene assay. The presence of each of these two regions conferred transcription repression not only on its cognate M. lepraerae 18-kDa gene promoter, but also on a heterologous promoter such as the Mycobacterium bovis BCG hsp65 gene promoter. Moreover, it was found that these regions could confer transcription repression activity in both cases in an orientation-independent manner. Thus, these results indicate that the upstream region of the M. leprae 18-kDa gene harbors transcription repression responsive element(s) acting as an operator and can be further divided into two separately functional regions, suggesting a bipartite structure of the element(s). The identification of transcription repression activity of the upstream region in the M. leprae 18-kDa gene will contribute greatly for the understanding of the 18-kDa gene regulation mechanism, and provide also useful information for the manipulation of mycobacterium gene expression.
Kim
Hyun Bae
HB
Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Korea.
You
Ji Chang
JC
D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000235:genetics*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000235:genetics*; D020218:Response Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
C067864:18 kDa protein, Mycobacterium leprae; D001426:Bacterial Proteins