Escherichia coli histone-like protein H-NS preferentially binds to horizontally acquired DNA in association with RNA polymerase.
Heat-stable nucleoid-structuring protein (H-NS) is one of the main nucleoid proteins expressed in exponentially growing Escherichia coli cells. In addition to a role in nucleoid organization, H-NS functions as a pleiotropic regulator of gene expression. The genome-wide distribution of H-NS, compared with the distribution of RNA polymerase and transcriptionally active genes, was investigated using a high-density oligonucleotide chip. The new approach utilized in this study revealed that H-NS binds specifically to approximately 250 loci, covering >1000 genes, to maintain transcriptional inactivation. RNA polymerase was detected in >65% of H-NS binding sites with low or no transcriptional activity, indicating that the association of RNA polymerase to promoter regions is a general mode of transcription repression by H-NS. This study also revealed that most H-NS bound DNA have been horizontally acquired, which indicates that repression of inappropriate gene expression by H-NS plays an important role in the diversification of the E. coli genome. This study presents a comprehensive assessment of the distribution of H-NS within the E. coli genome, sheds light on the mechanism underlying the transcriptional regulation by H-NS, and provides new insight into bacterial genome evolution.
Oshima
Taku
T
Graduate School of Information Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama, Ikoma, Nara, Japan.
Ishikawa
Shu
S
Kurokawa
Ken
K
Aiba
Hirofumi
H
Ogasawara
Naotake
N
D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D001665:Binding Sites; D047369:Chromatin Immunoprecipitation / Q000379:methods; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods; D011485:Protein Binding
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C031908:H-NS protein, bacteria; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases