title: Evolution of bacterial transcription factors: how proteins take on new tasks, but do not always stop doing the old ones.
abstract: Many bacterial transcription factors do not behave as per the textbook operon model. We draw on whole genome work, as well as reported diversity across different bacteria, to argue that transcription factors may have evolved from nucleoid-associated proteins. This view would explain a large amount of recent data gleaned from high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic analyses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
authors.forename: Sandhya S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Visweswariah
authors.affiliation: School of Biosciences and Institute of Microbiology and Infection, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Electronic address: S.J.W.BUSBY@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Stephen J W
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Busby
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D019295:Computational Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D008954:Models, Biological; D008958:Models, Molecular; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors
keywords: bacterial gene regulation; nucleoid associated proteins; transcription factors