Haycocks James R J, Grainger David C
Institute of Microbiology and Infection, School of Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2016 Jun 3;11(6):e0157016. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157016. eCollection 2016.
A commonly accepted paradigm of molecular biology is that transcription factors control gene expression by binding sites at the 5' end of a gene. However, there is growing evidence that transcription factor targets can occur within genes or between convergent genes. In this work, we have investigated one such target for the cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP) of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. We show that CRP binds between two convergent genes. When bound, CRP regulates transcription of a small open reading frame, which we term aatS, embedded within one of the adjacent genes. Our work demonstrates that non-canonical sites of transcription factor binding can have hidden functionality.
分子生物学中一个普遍接受的范式是转录因子通过结合基因5'端的位点来控制基因表达。然而，越来越多的证据表明转录因子靶点可能出现在基因内部或 convergent 基因之间。在这项工作中，我们研究了产肠毒素大肠杆菌的环磷酸腺苷受体蛋白（CRP）的一个这样的靶点。我们表明CRP结合在两个 convergent 基因之间。结合后，CRP调节一个嵌入相邻基因之一内的小开放阅读框（我们称之为aatS）的转录。我们的工作表明转录因子结合的非规范位点可能具有隐藏的功能。
