Premium
Contribution of individual promoters in the ddlB – ftsZ region to the transcription of the essential cell‐division gene ftsZ in Escherichia coli
Author(s) -
Flärdh Klas,
Garrido Teresa,
Vicente Miguel
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2958.1997.4001762.x
Subject(s) - ftsz , promoter , biology , transcription (linguistics) , gene , genetics , cell division , escherichia coli , gene expression , microbiology and biotechnology , cell , linguistics , philosophy
The essential cell‐division gene ftsZ is transcribed in Escherichia coli from at least six promoters found within the coding regions of the upstream ddlB , ftsQ and ftsA genes. The contribution of each one to the final yield of ftsZ transcription has been estimated using transcriptional lacZ fusions. The most proximal promoter, ftsZ2p , contributes less than 5% of the total transcription from the region that reaches ftsZ . The ftsZ4p and ftsZ3p promoters, both located inside ftsA , produce almost 37% of the transcription. An ftsAp promoter within the ftsQ gene yields nearly 12% of total transcription from the region. A large proportion of transcription (≈ 46%) derives from promoters ftsQ2p and ftsQ1p , which are located inside the upstream ddlB gene. Thus, the ftsQAZ genes are to a large extent transcribed as a polycistronic mRNA. However, we find that the ftsZ proximal region is necessary for full expression, which is in agreement with a recent report that mRNA cleavage by RNase E at the end of the ftsA cistron has a significant role in the contol of ftsZ expression.