Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.7.6 (RNA polymerase)
34,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Regulation of virulence factor expression in Bordetella pertussis is mediated by the BvgAS two-component regulatory system. Although previous studies have demonstrated that the transcriptional regulation of the filamentous hemagglutinin gene (fhaB) involves binding of the BvgA activator directly to the fhaB promoter region, the mechanism of pertussis toxin operon (ptx) regulation by BvgA has remained unclear. We demonstrate in vitro the specific binding of BvgA to a region upstream of the ptx promoter that encompasses a 20-bp directly repeated sequence (positions -157 to -117) previously shown to be critical for BvgA-dependent activation. This binding is strictly dependent on the phosphorylation of BvgA, which can be obtained by incubation of BvgA with acetyl phosphate. By DNase I protection studies, we demonstrate the synergistic binding of BvgA-phosphate and purified Escherichia coli RNA polymerase to the ptx promoter. In the presence of the polymerase holoenzyme, a greatly extended footprint encompassing the region between -163 and the putative polymerase binding site was observed. The implications of these observations for pertussis toxin expression and regulation are discussed.
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PMID:Synergistic binding of RNA polymerase and BvgA phosphate to the pertussis toxin promoter of Bordetella pertussis. 759 24

In Bordetella pertussis, expression of virulence factors is controlled by the Bvg proteins, which comprise a sensor-regulator two-component signal transduction system. Previously, we described a mutant strain of B. pertussis that had reduced transcription of pertussis toxin and adenylate cyclase toxin genes, while other virulence factors were relatively unaffected. We obtained a B. pertussis clone that repaired the defect in both this strain and an independent mutant strain with a similar phenotype when introduced onto the chromosome by allelic exchange. Further analysis revealed that the mutations were just upstream of the translational start site of the rpoA gene encoding the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase. We confirmed that these mutations were responsible for the mutant phenotype by site-directed mutagenesis. Our hypothesis that these mutations cause an overexpression of rpoA was confirmed by Western immunoblotting and translational fusion analysis. Corroboration of this effect was obtained by overexpressing rpoA on a plasmid in wild-type B. pertussis, which caused the same phenotype as the mutants showed. Conclusions in regard to the identity of the transcription activator of the toxin genes are discussed.
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PMID:Effect of mutations causing overexpression of RNA polymerase alpha subunit on regulation of virulence factors in Bordetella pertussis. 796 98

The genes encoding urease were cloned from Bordetella bronchiseptica and the 5.2 kb of DNA essential for expression analysed in a T7 RNA polymerase transcription-translation system. At least four polypeptides with predicted molecular weights of 69,000, 26,000, 12,200 and 11,000 were found. Partial DNA sequence of the gene encoding the 69,000 Da polypeptide revealed high amino acid identity to the alpha-subunit of Proteus mirabilis urease, UreC and jack bean urease. A stable, unmarked deletion was constructed in this gene to create a urease-negative mutant of B. bronchiseptica. To assess colonization in a guinea-pig model, the urease-negative strain was inoculated with the urease-positive parental strain in a mixed infection. The urease-negative strain out competed the urease-positive strain in the trachea, lungs and caecum. We demonstrate that urease is not essential for B. bronchiseptica colonization of the guinea-pig respiratory and digestive tracts.
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PMID:Cloning of Bordetella bronchiseptica urease genes and analysis of colonization by a urease-negative mutant strain in a guinea-pig model. 796 32

The bvg locus of Bordetella pertussis encodes an environmentally inducible operon essential for the expression of virulence genes. We show that in Escherichia coli, the PTOX promoter cloned in cis of the bvg locus is activated and environmentally regulated. Cotransformation of E. coli with the bvg locus cloned in a low-copy-number plasmid and with the PTOX promoter cloned in a high-copy-number plasmid can give rise to two different results. If the PTOX promoter is cloned in the pGem-3 vector, transcription is absent. If the PTOX promoter is cloned in the plasmid pKK232, containing the PTOX promoter between two ribosomal gene terminators of transcription, transcription occurs, although regulation of transcription is abolished. Under these conditions, the intracellular amount of RNA transcripts is increased by adding to the culture medium novobiocin, an inhibitor of bacterial gyrases. In vitro, the transcription of the PTOX promoter is activated on E. coli RNA polymerase supplemented with cell extracts from wild-type B. pertussis. Addition of DNA gyrase to the mixture dramatically reduces the amount of RNA synthesized. Our data show that the products of the bvg locus, BvgA and BvgS, are directly involved in the regulation of the PTOX promoter in E. coli and that DNA topology may play a role in the induction of transcription.
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PMID:DNA topology affects transcriptional regulation of the pertussis toxin gene of Bordetella pertussis in Escherichia coli and in vitro. 839 6

The cyaA gene of Bordetella pertussis and of Bordetella bronchiseptica encodes a toxin which is a bifunctional protein exhibiting adenylate cyclase and haemolytic activities. In Bordetella, virulence factors are synthesized under the control of the bvg regulatory locus, in response to environmental signals. In Escherichia coli the cyaA gene is not expressed, nor is it activated by bvg indicating that the activation of cya by bvg is indirect. To characterize cis-acting regulatory regions required for the activation of the cyaA gene we constructed cyaA-lacZY fusions containing progressive deletions in the promoter upstream region and isolated promoter mutations by chemical and site-directed mutagenesis. Deletion analysis shows that a region extending from -569 to -136 bp upstream from the start site of transcription is required for transactivation by bvg, suggesting that multiple binding sites are involved in the activation of the cyaA promoter. No single or double mutations in the promoter upstream region were found which conferred inactive or bvg-independent Cya phenotype. A double mutation in positions +10 and +13, relative to the transcription start site, rendered the promoter bvg-independent and functional in E. coli. The constitutive mutations create a new transcription start site, 20 bp downstream from the wild-type site, by providing new -10 and -35 elements recognized by RNA polymerase alone.
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PMID:Functional analysis of the cya promoter of Bordetella pertussis. 846 14

In Bordetella pertussis the expression of virulence factors is coordinately regulated by the BvgS and BvgA proteins, members of the bacterial two-component signal transduction family, BvgS being the transmembrane sensor and BvgA the regulator. Activation of virulence gene expression requires phosphorylation of BvgA. On the basis of observed differences in the regulation of individual genes, the existence of accessory regulators has been postulated. They were supposed to be necessary for expression of genes encoding adenylate cyclase toxin (cya) and pertussis toxin (ptx), but not required for the expression of fha, encoding filamentous hemagglutinin. To clarify this issue we investigated the mechanism of activation of the BvgAS-controlled genes by performing in vitro run-off transcription experiments. We show, using purified RNA polymerase of B.pertussis, that phosphorylated BvgA is sufficient for transcriptional activation of the major virulence genes, thus providing good evidence that BvgA regulation operates directly with the transcription initiation machinery at the promoters of the virulence genes without a requirement for accessory activators. In addition, our results indicate that activation of the different promoters may involve distinct mechanisms. We suggest that the previously observed differences in regulation of individual virulence-associated genes reflect differences in the phosphorylation state of BvgA.
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PMID:Phosphorylated BvgA is sufficient for transcriptional activation of virulence-regulated genes in Bordetella pertussis. 859 92

Recently, a novel type of regulatory mutation causing differential effects on the expression of virulence genes due to a slight overexpression of the RNA polymerase alpha subunit (RpoA) was found in Bordetella pertussis (N. H. Carbonetti, T. M. Fuchs, A. A. Patamawenu, T. J. Irish, H. Deppisch, and R. Gross, J. Bacteriol. 176:7267-7273, 1994). To gather information on the molecular events behind this phenomenon, we isolated suppressor mutants of the RpoA-overexpressing strains after random mutagenesis. Genetic characterization of these suppressor strains revealed the existence of at least three distinct groups of dominant alleles. Mutations occurred either in the rpoA locus itself, in the bvg locus, or in unknown gene loci. One mutant of the latter group was further characterized. By the introduction of a cosmid library containing genomic B. pertussis DNA into this suppressor strain, we isolated a cosmid which suppressed the phenotype of the suppressor strain, thus restoring the negative effect on transcription of the ptx and cya toxin genes. Mutagenesis of the cosmid with Tn5 led to the identification of the gene locus responsible for this phenomenon. Its DNA sequence revealed the presence of an open reading frame (ORF) consisting of 2,373 bp coding for a hypothetical 86-kDa protein with extensive sequence similarities to ORFs with not yet identified functions of Escherichia coli, Haemophilus influenzae, and Neisseria meningitidis. The new gene, termed tex, for toxin expression, seems to be an essential factor for B. pertussis, as it cannot be deleted from the bacterial chromosome. All members of this new protein family show significant sequence similarities with the mannitol repressor protein MtlR and with the presumptive RNA-binding domains of the Pnp and ribosomal S1 proteins of E. coli in their N- and C-terminal parts, respectively. These sequence similarities and the fact that the tex gene was isolated by virtue of its effects on gene expression in B. pertussis indicate that the members of this new protein family may play an important role in the transcription machinery of prokaryotic organisms.
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PMID:A new gene locus of Bordetella pertussis defines a novel family of prokaryotic transcriptional accessory proteins. 875 71

Transcription of virulence genes of Bordetella pertussis is co-ordinately regulated by the BvgA and BvgS proteins, which are members of the two-component family of bacterial signal-transduction proteins. BvgS is the transmembrane sensor and BvgA the transcriptional regulator. By gel mobility shift assays we demonstrate that phosphorylated BvgA (BvgA approximately P) forms distinct complexes with the filamentous haemagglutinin (PFHA) promoter DNA at different BvgA approximately P: DNA ratios. DNase I protection analyses show that phosphorylation of BvgA not only enhances affinity of the protein for the binding sites of the PFHA and bvgP1 promoters, but it extends significantly the bound region towards position -35 of these promoters. Conversely, a 10-fold higher amount of BvgA approximately P is required for binding to a large DNA region, from -168 to -60, of the pertussis toxin (Ptox) promoter sequence. These findings suggest that the molecular interaction of BvgA approximately P with the Ptox promoter is different from its interaction with the PFHA and bvgP1 promoters. The sigma 70 Escherichia coli RNA polymerase (RNP) does not bind to the bvg-regulated promoters. However, following the formation of a BvgA approximately P-promoter complex, the E. coli RNP specifically recognizes and binds to the bvg-regulated promoters. Thus, BvgA approximately P exerts its action at the level of promoter recognition by directing promoter selectivity by RNP.
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PMID:Differential binding of BvgA to two classes of virulence genes of Bordetella pertussis directs promoter selectivity by RNA polymerase. 886 79

Bordetella pertussis produces a cell-invasive adenylate cyclase toxin (CyaA) which is related to the RTX family of pore-forming toxins. Like all RTX toxins, CyaA is synthesised as a protoxin (proCyaA), encoded by the cyaA gene. Activation to the mature cell-invasive toxin involves palmitoylation of lysine 983 and is dependent on co-expression of cyaC. The role of the cyaC gene product in the acylation reaction has not been determined. We have developed an efficient T7 RNA polymerase system for over-expression of cyaA and cyaC separately in Escherichia coli. Each protein accumulated intracellularly in an insoluble form and could be collected by centrifugation of lysed cells. A single-step purification was achieved by extraction of the aggregated material with 8 M urea. Active cell-invasive CyaA was produced in vitro when the proCyaA and CyaC proteins were mixed with a cytosolic extract of either E. coli or B. pertussis. Activation was assumed to occur by an acylation reaction requiring acyl carrier protein (ACP) as cofactor, as the cytosolic factor required for toxin activation was lost if the S100 extract was dialysed before use and the cytosolic factor could be replaced in the in vitro reaction by ACP charged separately in vitro with palmitic acid, as reported previously for activation of the homologous E. coli haemolysin (HlyA). The in vitro activation system may be used to investigate the mechanism of the CyaC-dependent acylation of proCyaA and the effect of variation of the modifying fatty acyl group on target cell specificity and toxic activity of CyaA.
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PMID:Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase toxin: proCyaA and CyaC proteins synthesised separately in Escherichia coli produce active toxin in vitro. 897 51

The expression of virulence factor genes in Bordetella pertussis is mediated by the BvgA-BvgS two-component signal transduction system. The response regulator, BvgA, acts directly as a transcriptional activator at the loci encoding pertussis toxin (ptx) and filamentous hemagglutinin (fha). Previous studies have demonstrated that these two loci are differentially regulated by BvgA. As an initial step in gaining insight into the mechanism underlying this differential regulation, we initiated DNA binding and in vitro transcription analyses to examine the activities of BvgA and RNA polymerase (RNAP) purified from both B. pertussis and Escherichia coli at the fha promoter. We discovered that unphosphorylated BvgA binds to a single region (-100 to -70, relative to the start of transcription), whereas phosphorylated BvgA binds both this region and another, farther downstream, that extends to the -35 nucleotide. In the absence of BvgA, RNAP binds a region farther upstream than expected (-104 to -35). However, occupation of both sites by BvgA phosphate repositions RNAP to the site used in vivo. The binding of BvgA phosphate to the downstream site correlates with in vitro transcriptional activity at the fha promoter. As the DNA binding and transcription activities of the E. coli-derived RNAP are similar to those observed for the B. pertussis enzyme, we employed several mutant E. coli proteins in in vitro transcription analyses. We observed that polymerases carrying either a deletion of the C-terminal domain of the alpha subunit or substitution of alanine at either of two critical residues within this domain were severely impaired in the ability to mediate BvgA-activated transcription at fha.
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PMID:Nature of DNA binding and RNA polymerase interaction of the Bordetella pertussis BvgA transcriptional activator at the fha promoter. 904 38


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