Vol. 273, Issue 1, 653-659, January 2, 1998
Activation of the leu-500 Promoter by a Reversed
Polarity tetA Gene
RESPONSE TO GLOBAL PLASMID SUPERCOILING
Dongrong
Chen,
Sophie
Bachellier, and
David M. J.
Lilley
From the Cancer Research Campaign Nucleic Acid Structure Research
Group, Department of Biochemistry, The University,
Dundee DD1 4HN, United Kingdom
The leu-500 promoter is inactivated
by a mutation in the
10 region but can be activated in topA
Escherichia coli and Salmonella strains. We have
found that the tetA gene plays a vital role in the
topA-dependent activation of a plasmid-borne
leu-500 promoter. In previous studies, the
leu-500 promoter and tetA gene have been arranged divergently. In this study we have reversed the polarity of
the tetA gene, thus locating the leu-500
promoter at the 3
end of tetA. Despite being formally
located in the downstream region of tetA, the
leu-500 promoter is equally well activated in a
topA strain in this environment, even though it is 1.6 kilobase pairs away from the promoter of the reversed tetA
gene. Activation of the leu-500 promoter depends on
transcription and translation of tetA but is largely
insensitive to the function of other transcription units on the
plasmid. These results require a change in viewpoint of the role of
tetA, from local to global supercoiling. We conclude that
transcription of the tetA gene is the main generator of
transcription-induced supercoiling that activates the
leu-500 promoter. Unbalanced relaxation of this
supercoiling leads to a net increase in the negative linking difference
of the plasmid globally, and there is a linear correlation between the
change in global plasmid topology and the activation of the
leu-500 promoter. Thus the leu-500 promoter
appears to respond to the negative supercoiling of the plasmid
overall.
Copyright © 1998 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.