Open Access5′‐coding sequence of the nasA gene of A zotobacter vinelandii is required for efficient expression
Author(s) -
Wang Baomin,
Wang Yumei,
Kennedy Christina
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/1574-6968.12570
Subject(s) - azotobacter vinelandii , coding region , gene , operon , biology , gene expression , genetics , regulation of gene expression , promoter , nitrogenase , nitrogen fixation , escherichia coli , bacteria
Abstract The operon nas ACBH in A zotobacter vinelandii encodes nitrate and nitrite reductases that sequentially reduce nitrate to nitrite and to ammonium for nitrogen assimilation into organic molecules. Our previous analyses showed that nas ACBH expression is subject to antitermination regulation that occurs upstream of the nasA gene in response to the availability of nitrate and nitrite. In this study, we continued expression analyses of the nasA gene and observed that the nasA 5′‐coding sequence plays an important role in gene expression, as demonstrated by the fact that deletions caused over sixfold reduction in the expression of the lacZ reporter gene. Further analysis suggests that the nasA 5′‐coding sequence promotes gene expression in a way that is not associated with weakened transcript folding around the translational initiation region or codon usage bias. The findings from this study imply that there exists potential to improve gene expression in A . vinelandii by optimizing 5′‐coding sequences.