Wilson Adam C, Tan Ming
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, California 92697-4025, USA.
J Bacteriol. 2002 Dec;184(23):6566-71. doi: 10.1128/JB.184.23.6566-6571.2002.
HrcA is a regulator of bacterial heat shock gene expression that binds to a cis-acting DNA element called CIRCE. It has been proposed that HrcA and CIRCE function as a repressor-operator pair. We have purified recombinant HrcA from the pathogenic bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and have shown that it is a DNA-binding protein that functions as a negative regulator of transcription. HrcA bound specifically to the CIRCE element in a concentration-dependent manner. HrcA repressed the in vitro transcription of a chlamydial heat shock promoter, and this repression was promoter specific. HrcA-mediated repression appears to be dependent on the topological state of the promoter, as repression on a supercoiled promoter template was greater than that on a linearized template. These results provide direct support for the role of HrcA as a transcriptional repressor in bacteria. This is the first report of the in vitro reconstitution of transcriptional regulation in Chlamydia.
HrcA是一种细菌热休克基因表达的调节因子,它与一种名为CIRCE的顺式作用DNA元件结合。有人提出HrcA和CIRCE作为阻遏物-操纵基因对发挥作用。我们从致病性细菌沙眼衣原体中纯化了重组HrcA,并表明它是一种DNA结合蛋白,作为转录的负调节因子发挥作用。HrcA以浓度依赖的方式特异性结合CIRCE元件。HrcA抑制了衣原体热休克启动子的体外转录,并且这种抑制是启动子特异性的。HrcA介导的抑制似乎依赖于启动子的拓扑状态,因为对超螺旋启动子模板的抑制大于对线性化模板的抑制。这些结果为HrcA作为细菌转录阻遏物的作用提供了直接支持。这是关于衣原体转录调控体外重建的首次报道。