title: A comprehensive set of plasmids for vanillate- and xylose-inducible gene expression in Caulobacter crescentus.
abstract: Caulobacter crescentus is widely used as a powerful model system for the study of prokaryotic cell biology and development. Analysis of this organism is complicated by a limited selection of tools for genetic manipulation and inducible gene expression. This study reports the identification and functional characterization of a vanillate-regulated promoter (P(van)) which meets all requirements for application as a multi-purpose expression system in Caulobacter, thus complementing the established xylose-inducible system (P(xyl)). Furthermore, we introduce a newly constructed set of integrating and replicating shuttle vectors that considerably facilitate cell biological and physiological studies in Caulobacter. Based on different narrow and broad-host range replicons, they offer a wide choice of promoters, resistance genes, and fusion partners for the construction of fluorescently or affinity-tagged proteins. Since many of these constructs are also suitable for use in other bacteria, this work provides a comprehensive collection of tools that will enrich many areas of microbiological research.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Strasse, 35043 Marburg, Germany. thanbichler@mpi-marburg.mpg.de
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thanbichler
authors.forename: Antonio A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Iniesta
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shapiro
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D016935:Caulobacter crescentus / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010957:Plasmids; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014641:Vanillic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D014994:Xylose / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014994:Xylose; D014641:Vanillic Acid