Open AccessDrastically decreased transcription from CII‐activated promoters is responsible for impaired lysogenization of the Escherichia coli rpoA341 mutant by bacteriophage λ
Author(s) -
SzalewskaPałasz Agnieszka,
Wçgrzyn Alicja,
Obuchowski Michał,
Pawłowski Ryszard,
Bielawski Krzysztof,
Thomas Mark S.,
Weągrzyn Grzegorz
Publication year - 1996
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/j.1574-6968.1996.tb08503.x
Subject(s) - lysogenic cycle , promoter , biology , operon , transcription (linguistics) , escherichia coli , microbiology and biotechnology , bacteriophage , mutant , rna polymerase , lysogen , gene , sigma factor , genetics , gene expression , linguistics , philosophy
Abstract It was demonstrated previously that a mutation, rpoA341 , in the gene encoding the a subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase prevents lysogenization by bacteriophage X. The rpoA341 allele is known to be responsible for impaired transcription of some positively regulated E. coli chromosomal operons. Here we demonstrate that the inhibition of lysogenization of the rpoA341 mutant is a result of drastically decreased transcription from positively regulated phage promoters. We were unable to detect any transcripts originating from the CII‐activated P E. p I and p aQ promoters (important for lysogenic development) in the phage‐infected rpoA341 mutant, in contrast to an otherwise isogenic rpoA + strain. The results are discussed in the light of other reports showing that activation of the p E promoter by CII protein in vitro is decreased only about fivefold when the native a subunit is replaced by truncated a polypeptides.