出芽酵母Saccharomyces cerevisiae转录抑制因子Rdr1负调控细胞胁迫应答

Rdr1是出芽酵母Saccharomyces cerevisiae的一个转录抑制因子,参与控制细胞的多重药物耐受性,并可能与细胞胁迫应答相关．利用PCR方法扩增RDR1基因片段,将其克隆至高拷贝表达载体pYES2/NTA上并诱导Rdr1蛋白在酵母细胞中过表达．为了揭示转录抑制因子Rdr1在胁迫应答中的作用,比较了RDR1过表达细胞、RDR1缺失突变体细胞和野生型细胞在过氧化氢处理、热胁迫和高盐处理条件下的生长状态,结果显示,RDR1过表达导致细胞对上述3种胁迫作用更敏感,而RDR1缺失则使细胞对这些胁迫作用的耐受性不受影响或有一定增强．为了揭示上述不同细胞在胁迫条件下生长状态的差异与细胞内抗氧化酶活性之间的关系,测定并比较了RDR1过表达细胞、RDR1缺失突变体细胞和野生型细胞中超氧化物岐化酶(superoxide dismutase SOD)、过氧化氢酶、葡萄糖-6-磷酸脱氢酶(glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase G6PDH)、谷胱甘肽还原酶(glutathione reductase GR)的活性．结果表明,RDR1缺失突变体细胞具高活性的SOD、过氧化氢酶、G6PDH和GR,而Rdr1过表达细胞中SOD、过氧化氢酶、G6PDH和GR的活性较低．RDR1对SOD和过氧化氢酶活性的影响要大于G6PDH和GR．细胞抗氧化酶活性的变化初步揭示,RDR1过表达细胞对胁迫的敏感和RDR1缺失突变体细胞对胁迫耐受性增加的原因．为转录抑制因子Rdr1在胁迫应答中的负调控作用及其机理提供了初步的遗传学和生物化学证据．     

CAC2634-disrupted mutant of Clostridium acetobutylicum can be electrotransformed in air

Aims: To simplify the electrotransformation process of Clostridium acetobutylicum, which currently needs to be performed in an anaerobic chamber, thus laborious and time‐consuming. Methods and Results: The CAC2634 gene encoding PerR is a known peroxide regulon repressor in Cl. acetobutylicum. CAC2634 in a previously constructed Restriction–Modification system deficient Cl. acetobutylicum mutant SMB009 was disrupted using ClosTron method. The resulted mutant SMB012 can be electrotransformed in air with an efficiency of 1·2–3·1 × 10³ transformants μg^?1 DNA. Conclusions: We demonstrated that the disruption of CAC2634 in Cl. acetobutylicum enables its electrotransformation in air. Significance and Impact of the Study: The electrotransformation process of Cl. acetobutylicum could be significantly simplified, especially when operating multiple electrotransformations.     

The multicomponent antirestriction system of phage P1 is linked to capsid morphogenesis

Bacterial Type I restriction‐modification (R‐M) systems present a major barrier to foreign DNA entering the bacterial cell. The temperate phage P1 packages several proteins into the virion that protect the phage DNA from host restriction. Isogenic P1 deletion mutants were used to reconstitute the previously described restriction phenotypes associated with darA and darB. While P1ΔdarA and P1ΔdarB produced the expected phenotypes, deletions of adjacent genes hdf and ddrA also produced darA‐like phenotypes and deletion of ulx produced a darB‐like phenotype, implicating several new proteins of previously unknown function in the P1 dar antirestriction system. Interestingly, disruption of ddrB decreased P1's sensitivity to EcoB and EcoK restriction. Proteomic analysis of purified virions suggests that packaging of antirestriction components into P1 virions follows a distinct pathway that begins with the incorporation of DarA and Hdf and concludes with DarB and Ulx. Electron microscopy analysis showed that hdf and darA mutants also produce abnormally high proportions of virions with aberrant small heads, which suggests Hdf and DarA play a role in capsid morphogenesis. The P1 antirestriction system is more complex than previously realized and is comprised of multiple proteins including DdrA, DdrB, Hdf, and Ulx in addition to DarA and DarB.     

DNA‐PK suppresses a p53‐independent apoptotic response to DNA damage

p53 is required for DNA damage‐induced apoptosis, which is central to its function as a tumour suppressor. Here, we show that the apoptotic defect of p53‐deficient cells is nearly completely rescued by inactivation of any of the three subunits of the DNA repair holoenzyme DNA‐dependent protein kinase (DNA‐PK). Intestinal crypt cells from p53 nullizygous mice were resistant to radiation‐induced apoptosis, whereas apoptosis in DNA‐PK_cs/p53, Ku80/p53 and Ku70/p53 double‐null mice was quantitatively equivalent to that seen in wild‐type mice. This p53‐independent apoptotic response was specific to the loss of DNA‐PK, as it was not seen in ligase IV (Lig4)/p53 or ataxia telangiectasia mutated (Atm)/p53 double‐null mice. Furthermore, it was associated with an increase in phospho‐checkpoint kinase 2 (CHK2), and cleaved caspases 3 and 9, the latter indicating engagement of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. This shows that there are two separate, but equally effective, apoptotic responses to DNA damage: one is p53 dependent and the other, engaged in the absence of DNA‐PK, does not require p53.     

The application of Tet repressor in prokaryotic gene regulation and expression

Inducible gene expression based upon Tet repressor (tet regulation) is a broadly applied tool in molecular genetics. In its original environment, Tet repressor (TetR) negatively controls tetracycline (tc) resistance in bacteria. In the presence of tc, TetR is induced and detaches from its cognate DNA sequence tetO, so that a tc antiporter protein is expressed. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview about tet regulation in bacteria and illustrate the parameters of different regulatory architectures. While some of these set‐ups rely on natural tet‐control regions like those found on transposon Tn10, highly efficient variations of this system have recently been adapted to different Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria. Novel tet‐controllable artificial or hybrid promoters were employed for target gene expression. They are controlled by regulators expressed at different levels either in a constitutive or in an autoregulated manner. The resulting tet systems have been used for various purposes. We discuss integrative elements vested with tc‐sensitive promoters, as well as tet regulation in Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria for analytical purposes and for protein overproduction. Also the use of TetR as an in vivo biosensor for tetracyclines or as a regulatory device in synthetic biology constructs is outlined. Technical specifications underlying different regulatory set‐ups are highlighted, and finally recent developments concerning variations of TetR are presented, which may expand the use of prokaryotic tet systems in the future.     

Multi‐layered inhibition of Streptomyces development: BldO is a dedicated repressor of whiB

BldD‐(c‐di‐GMP) sits on top of the regulatory network that controls differentiation in Streptomyces, repressing a large regulon of developmental genes when the bacteria are growing vegetatively. In this way, BldD functions as an inhibitor that blocks the initiation of sporulation. Here, we report the identification and characterisation of BldO, an additional developmental repressor that acts to sustain vegetative growth and prevent entry into sporulation. However, unlike the pleiotropic regulator BldD, we show that BldO functions as the dedicated repressor of a single key target gene, whiB, and that deletion of bldO or constitutive expression of whiB is sufficient to induce precocious hypersporulation.