Conserved C-terminal region of global repressor KorA of broad-host-range plasmid RK2 is required for co-operativity between KorA and a second RK2 global regulator, KorB.

KorA and KorB proteins of IncP1 plasmid RK2 are encoded in the central control region (ccr) of the plasmid and act as global regulators of plasmid genes for replication, transfer and stable inheritance. KorA represses seven promoters on RK2, by binding to a defined operator site, OA, which always occurs in promoter regions. KorB recognises another operator, OB, which is found 12 times on the RK2 genome, but not always in promoter regions. At five of the KorA-regulated promoters, an OBsequence is also present. The presence of both KorA and KorB leads to severely decreased promoter activity. By measuring repression at different levels of KorA and KorB alone and in combination, we showed that there is at least 3. 4-fold co-operativity between them at korApin vivo. Testing the ability of previously isolated KorA mutants to act in a co-operative way in the presence of KorB in vivo or in vitro showed that the C-terminal part of KorA between amino acid positions 68 and 83 is required for this co-operativity. This region is part of a segment that is highly conserved between KorA and two other RK2 proteins, TrbA and KlcB. We propose that this conserved region may provide the basis for co-operativity with KorB either indirectly, by modulating DNA structure near the KorB binding site, or directly by serving as the "recognition" patch of each protein by KorB. It may thus serve as a key domain in allowing a sensitive response of the global circuits to changes in repressor concentration and thus modulation of replication, transfer and maintenance.     

猪精浆蛋白基因PSP-Ⅰ和PSP-Ⅱ启动子序列克隆及生物信息学分析

分别用PCR方法扩增了1.7kbp和1.6kbp的猪PSP-Ⅰ和PSP-Ⅱ基因的启动子,并进行TA克隆,测序鉴定,测序结果用DNAstar程序与Genebank中的相应序列进行对比分析,结果显示与已发表序列的同源性分别为99.8%和96.3%。利用生物信息学的方法对克隆的1.7kbp和1.6kbp的猪PSP-Ⅰ和PSP-Ⅱ基因的启动子区进行了预测分析。PSP-Ⅰ和PSP-Ⅱ基因序列对比(mVista)分析发现,启动子0→-1000bp的保守性较高,其中0→-200bp核心启动子部分的序列同源性达到了100%,而-1000bp上游序列的保守性则较低。启动子的位置预测(Promoter Scan)结果显示,转录起始点上游200bp的区域为两基因的核心启动子位置。启动子区转录因子结合位点预测(TFSEARCH)发现,转录起始位点上游的1000bp区域内含有大量的顺式调控元件,并且得到了一系列潜在的转录因子结合位点。