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Role of the Upstream Region Containing an Intrinsic DNA Curvature in the Negative Regulation of the Phospholipase C Gene of Clostridium perfringens
Author(s) -
Toyonaga Tatsuo,
Matsushita Osamu,
Katayama Seiichi,
Minami Junzaburo,
Okabe Akinobu
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
microbiology and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.664
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1348-0421
pISSN - 0385-5600
DOI - 10.1111/j.1348-0421.1992.tb02060.x
Subject(s) - biology , microbiology and biotechnology , clostridium perfringens , gene , phospholipase c , promoter , transcription (linguistics) , nucleic acid sequence , gene expression , upstream activating sequence , genetics , linguistics , philosophy , bacteria , receptor
The phospholipase C (α‐toxin) gene ( plc ) of Clostridium perfringens was cloned into pUC19 and the effects of the upstream regions on expression of the plc gene were examined in Escherichia coli JM109. When the 0.7‐kb region just upstream of the putative — 35 site of the gene was deleted, production of phospholipase C increased approximately 10‐fold. Northern blot hybridization analysis of the plc transcript showed that the upstream region inhibited transcription from the plc promoter. Nucleotide sequencing of this upstream region revealed that there are three periodically repeated (dA) 5–6 tracts between positions −66 and −40 of the plc gene. A fragment containing this sequence showed anomalously slow electrophoretic mobility at low temperature, indicating that the region immediately upstream of the plc promoter is a locus of sequence directed DNA‐bending. Nested deletions of the upstream region were created from its 5′ end by exonuclease III and the effects of deletions on the expression of the plc gene were examined. When the 77‐bp fragment containing the two (dA) 5–6 tracts was deleted, phospholipase C production increased markedly. These results indicate that the intrinsic DNA curvature upstream of the plc promoter is involved in the negative regulation of the plc gene transcription.