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Transcription activation of a UV‐inducible Clostridium perfringens bacteriocin gene by a novel σ factor
Author(s) -
Dupuy Bruno,
Mani Nagraj,
Katayama Seiichi,
Sonenshein Abraham L.
Publication year - 2005
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 - 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2004.04456.x
Subject(s) - clostridium perfringens , biology , sigma factor , clostridium , gene , clostridium botulinum , plasmid , transcription (linguistics) , microbiology and biotechnology , rna polymerase , promoter , clostridium tetani , bacteriocin , gene expression , toxin , genetics , escherichia coli , bacteria , virology , linguistics , philosophy , vaccination , antimicrobial , tetanus
Summary Expression of the plasmid‐encoded Clostridium perfringens gene for bacteriocin BCN5 was shown to depend in vivo and in vitro on the activity of UviA protein. UviA, also plasmid‐encoded, proved to be an RNA polymerase σ factor and was also partly autoregulatory. The uviA gene has two promoters; one provided a UviA‐independent, basal level of gene expression while the stronger, UviA‐dependent promoter was only utilized after the cell experienced DNA damage. As a result, BCN5 synthesis is induced by treatment with UV light or mitomycin C. UviA is related to a special class of σ factors found to date only in Clostridium species and responsible for activating transcription of toxin genes in C lostridium difficile, Clostridium tetani , and Clostridium botulinum .