title: DksA involvement in transcription fidelity buffers stochastic epigenetic change.
abstract: DksA is an auxiliary transcription factor that interacts with RNA polymerase and influences gene expression. Depending on the promoter, DksA can be a positive or negative regulator of transcription initiation. Moreover, DksA has a substantial effect on transcription elongation where it prevents the collision of transcription and replication machineries, plays a key role in maintaining transcription elongation when translation and transcription are uncoupled and has been shown to be involved in transcription fidelity. Here, we assessed the role of DksA in transcription fidelity by monitoring stochastic epigenetic switching in the lac operon (with and without an error-prone transcription slippage sequence), partial phenotypic suppression of a lacZ nonsense allele, as well as monitoring the number of lacI mRNA transcripts produced in the presence and absence of DksA via an operon fusion and single molecule fluorescent in situ hybridization studies. We present data showing that DksA acts to maintain transcription fidelity in vivo and the role of DksA seems to be distinct from that of the GreA and GreB transcription fidelity factors.
authors: Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors: Dominik
authors: D
authors: Satory
authors: Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors: Alasdair J E
authors: AJ
authors: Gordon
authors: Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA Graduate Program in Structural and Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors: Mengyu
authors: M
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors: Jennifer A
authors: JA
authors: Halliday
authors: Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA Graduate Program in Structural and Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors: Ido
authors: I
authors: Golding
authors: Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA herman@bcm.edu.
authors: Christophe
authors: C
authors: Herman
mesh_terms: D018389:Codon, Nonsense; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D007763:Lac Operon; D056968:Lac Repressors / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018389:Codon, Nonsense; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D056968:Lac Repressors; C539064:LacI protein, E coli; C090751:dksA protein, E coli; D001616:beta-Galactosidase