Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P51532 (transcriptional activator)
6,546 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Azospirillum represents the best characterized genus of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Other free-living diazotrophs repeatedly detected in association with plant roots, include Acetobacter diazotrophicus, Herbaspirillum seropedicae, Azoarcus spp. and Azotobacter. Four aspects of the Azospirillum-plant root interaction are highlighted: natural habitat, plant root interaction, nitrogen fixation and biosynthesis of plant growth hormones. Each of these aspects is dealt with in a comparative way. Azospirilla are predominantly surface-colonizing bacteria, whereas A. diazotrophicus, H. seropedicae and Azoarcus sp. are endophytic diazotrophs. The attachment of Azospirillum cells to plant roots occurs in two steps. The polar flagellum, of which the flagellin was shown to be a glycoprotein, mediates the adsorption step. An as yet unidentified surface polysaccharide is believed to be essential in the subsequent anchoring phase. In Azoarcus sp. the attachment process is mediated by type IV pili. Nitrogen fixation structural genes (nif) are highly conserved among all nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and in all diazotrophic species of the class of proteobacteria examined, the transcriptional activator NifA is required for expression of other nif genes in response to two major environmental signals (oxygen and fixed N). However, the mechanisms involved in this control can vary in different organisms. In Azospirillum brasilense and H. seropedicae (alpha- and beta-subgroup, respectively), NifA is inactive in conditions of excess nitrogen. Activation of NifA upon removal of fixed N seems to involve, either directly or indirectly, the signal transduction protein P(II). The presence of four conserved cysteine residues in the NifA protein might be an indication that NifA is directly sensitive to oxygen. In Azotobacter vinelandii (gamma-subgroup) nifA is cotranscribed with a second gene nifL. The nifL gene product inactivates NifA in response to high oxygen tension and cellular nitrogen-status. NifL was found to be a redox-sensitive flavoprotein. The relief of NifL inhibition on NifA activity, in response to N-limitation, is suggested to involve a P(II)-like protein. Moreover, nitrogenase activity is regulated according to the intracellular nitrogen and O(2) level. In A. brasilense and Azospirillum lipoferum posttranslational control of nitrogenase, in response to ammonium and anaerobiosis, involves ADP-ribosylation of the nitrogenase iron protein, mediated by the enzymes DraT and DraG. At least three pathways for indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) biosynthesis in A. brasilense exist: two Trp-dependent (the indole-3-pyruvic acid and presumably the indole-3-acetamide pathway) and one Trp-independent pathway. The occurrence of an IAA biosynthetic pathway not using Trp (tryptophan) as precursor is highly unusual in bacteria. Nevertheless, the indole-3-pyruvate decarboxylase encoding ipdC gene is crucial in the overall IAA biosynthesis in Azospirillum. A number of genes essential for Trp production have been isolated in A. brasilense, including trpE(G) which codes for anthranilate synthase, the key enzyme in Trp biosynthesis. The relevance of each of these four aspects for plant growth promotion by Azospirillum is discussed.
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PMID:Azospirillum, a free-living nitrogen-fixing bacterium closely associated with grasses: genetic, biochemical and ecological aspects. 1097 48

Protein kinase GCN2 regulates translation initiation by phosphorylating eukaryotic initiation factor 2alpha (eIF2alpha), impeding general protein synthesis but specifically inducing translation of GCN4, a transcriptional activator of amino acid biosynthetic genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. GCN2 activity is stimulated in amino acid-deprived cells through binding of uncharged tRNA to a domain related to histidyl tRNA synthetase. We show that GCN2 is phosphorylated by another kinase on serine 577, located N-terminal to the kinase domain. Mutation of Ser-577 to alanine produced partial activation of GCN2 in nonstarved cells, increasing the level of phosphorylated eIF2alpha, derepressing GCN4 expression, and elevating the cellular levels of tryptophan and histidine. The Ala-577 mutation also increased the tRNA binding affinity of purified GCN2, which can account for the elevated kinase activity of GCN2-S577A in nonstarved cells where uncharged tRNA levels are low. Whereas Ser-577 remains phosphorylated in amino acid-starved cells, its dephosphorylation could mediate GCN2 activation in other stress or starvation conditions by lowering the threshold of uncharged tRNA required to activate the protein.
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PMID:Serine 577 is phosphorylated and negatively affects the tRNA binding and eIF2alpha kinase activities of GCN2. 1207 Jan 58

The biosynthetic gene cluster for rebeccamycin, an indolocarbazole antibiotic, from Lechevalieria aerocolonigenes ATCC 39243 has 11 ORFs. To clarify their functions, mutants with rebG, rebD, rebC, rebP, rebM, rebR, rebH, rebT, or orfD2 disrupted were constructed, and the gene products were examined. rebP disruptants produced 11,11'-dichlorochromopyrrolic acid, found to be a biosynthetic intermediate by a bioconversion experiment. Other genes encoded N-glycosyltransferase (rebG), monooxygenase (rebC), methyltransferase (rebM), a transcriptional activator (rebR), and halogenase (rebH). rebT disruptants produced rebeccamycin as much as the wild strain, so rebT was probably not involved in rebeccamycin production. Biosynthetic genes of staurosporine, an another indolocarbazole antibiotic, were cloned from Streptomyces sp. TP-A0274. staO, staD, and staP were similar to rebO, rebD, and rebP, respectively, all of which are responsible for indolocarbazole biosynthesis, But a rebC homolog, encoding a putative enzyme oxidizing the C-7 site of pyrrole rings, was not found in the staurosporine biosynthetic gene cluster. These results suggest that indolocarbazole is constructed by oxidative decarboxylation of chromopyrrolic acid (11,11'-dichlorochromopyrrolic acid in rebeccamycin) generated from two molecules of tryptophan by coupling and that the oxidation state at the C-7 position depends on the additional enzyme(s) encoded by the biosynthetic genes.
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PMID:Characterization of the biosynthetic gene cluster of rebeccamycin from Lechevalieria aerocolonigenes ATCC 39243. 1261 84

The in-situ conformations of peptide layers formed from the adsorption of two different synthetic 15-mer peptides at the hydrophilic silicon oxide/aqueous solution interface have been determined using neutron reflectivity (NR). The first peptide is based on the native sequence of a protein-binding domain within a heteromeric transcriptional activator, HAP2, identified from yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, with tyrosine (Y) present at the 1st, 8th and 15th amino acid positions, hence we denote this YYY15. Substitution of tryptophan (W) at the same locations gives WWW15. Both peptides have alpha-helical structure in phosphate buffer, as determined by circular dichroism (CD) spectra. D(2)O was used as solvent in the NR experiments to highlight structural heterogeneity across the hydrogenated peptide layers. At pH 7, YYY15 was found to form a weakly adsorbed interfacial monolayer. However, the mutant WWW15 showed strong interfacial adsorption, with the interfacial layer characterized by a middle hydrophobic sublayer of 7-8 A with lower scattering length density and two almost symmetrical hydrophilic outer sublayers of 6-8 A with higher scattering length density, suggesting the formation of a "sideways-on" helical conformation. An increase in pH to 9 resulted in the improved packing within the interfacial layer with similar structure. However, decrease in pH to 5 reduced the interfacial adsorption, mainly due to the enhanced solubility of the peptides associated with the protonation of arginine (R) and lysine (K) groups and the decreasing concentration of divalent HPO(4)(2-) in the phosphate buffer. Subsequent assessment of the reversibility of adsorption showed that once the peptide layers were formed they did not desorb. These interfacial structures may provide feasible routes to interfacial nano-templating.
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PMID:Interfacial nano-structuring of designed peptides regulated by solution pH. 1526 24

We have identified four mutations in Xenopus TFIIIA that increase the stability of TFIIIA-5 S rRNA gene complexes. In each case, the mutation has a relatively modest effect on equilibrium binding affinity. In three cases, these equilibrium binding effects can be ascribed primarily to decreases in the rate constant for protein-DNA complex dissociation. In the fourth case, however, a substitution of phenylalanine for the wild-type leucine at position 148 in TFIIIA results in much larger compensating changes in the kinetics of complex assembly and dissociation. The data support a model in which a relatively unstable population of complexes with multi-component dissociation kinetics forms rapidly; complexes then undergo a slow conformational change that results in very stable, kinetically homogeneous TFIIIA-DNA complexes. The L148F mutant protein acts as a particularly potent transcriptional activator when it is fused to the VP16 activation domain and expressed in yeast cells. Substitution of L148 to tyrosine or tryptophan produces an equally strong transcriptional activator. Substitution to histidine results in genetic and biochemical effects that are more modest than, but similar to, those observed with the L148F mutation. We propose that an amino acid with a planar side chain at position 148 can intercalate between adjacent base pairs in the intermediate element of the 5 S rRNA gene. Intercalation occurs slowly but results in a very stable DNA-protein complex. These results suggest that transcriptional activation by a cis-acting sequence element is largely dependent on the kinetic, rather than the thermodynamic, stability of the complex formed with an activator protein. Thus, transcriptional activation is dependent in large part on the lifetime of the activator-DNA complex rather than on binding site occupancy at steady state. Introduction of intercalating amino acids into zinc finger proteins may be a useful tool for producing artificial transcription factors with particularly high in vivo activity.
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PMID:Mutations in TFIIIA that increase stability of the TFIIIA-5 S rRNA gene complex: unusual effects on the kinetics of complex assembly and dissociation. 1588 46

The ability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to utilize galactose is regulated by the nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling of a transcriptional repressor, the Gal80 protein. Gal80 interacts with the transcriptional activator Gal4 in the nucleus and inhibits its function, preventing induction of the GAL genes. In response to galactose, the relative amounts of Gal80 in the cytoplasm and the nucleus are modulated by the action of a signal transducer, Gal3. Although it has been speculated that Gal3 binds galactose, this has not been experimentally demonstrated. In this study, we show that replacement of a conserved tyrosine in Gal3 by tryptophan leads to a reduction of its constitutive activity in the absence of galactose. In addition, this mutant protein was fully functional in vivo only when high concentrations of galactose were present in the medium. When overexpressed, the mutant was found to activate the genes GAL1 and GAL7/10 differentially. The implications of these findings for the fine regulation of GAL genes, and its physiological significance, are discussed.
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PMID:Replacement of a conserved tyrosine by tryptophan in Gal3p of Saccharomyces cerevisiae reduces constitutive activity: implications for signal transduction in the GAL regulon. 1616 Aug 53

Interferon (IFN)-gamma-induced expression of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), an enzyme that inhibits some pathogens by limiting tryptophan availability, is transcriptionally enhanced by tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. The expression of interferon responsive factor (IRF)-1, an IFN-gamma-induced transcriptional activator critical to IDO regulation, is also enhanced synergistically in response to IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha. The IRF-1 regulatory region contains an IFN-gamma-activated sequence (GAS) and a kappaB site, which bind STAT-1 and NF-kappaB, respectively. The TNF-alpha-mediated increase in STAT-1 activation in IFN-gamma-treated cells enhances IRF-1 transcription; however, the contribution of TNF-alpha-mediated increases in nuclear NF-kappaB is uncertain. To identify whether binding of NF-kappaB upstream of the IRF-1 gene is rate-limiting in IRF-1 expression in response to IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha, a proteasome inhibitor was utilized to maintain nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB at constitutive levels; its effect on IRF-1 expression and IDO-specific transcription was evaluated. By limiting NF-kappaB nuclear translocation, IRF-1 expression in IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha treated cells was maintained at a level comparable to that achieved in response to IFN-gamma alone, and the synergistic increase IDO transcription was blocked, suggesting that increases in NF-kappaB translocation are required for synergistic IDO expression in response to IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha.
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PMID:NF-kappa B activation contributes to indoleamine dioxygenase transcriptional synergy induced by IFN-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. 1693 Oct 33

The transcriptional activator HrpB of the bacterial wilt causing betaproteobacterium Ralstonia solanacearum represents a key regulator for pathogenicity. In particular, it drives expression of hrp genes encoding a type III secretion system (T3SS) as well as effector molecules for delivery into the host cytosol to promote disease. However, the HrpB regulon extends beyond this T3SS. We describe here an HrpB-activated operon of six genes that is responsible for the synthesis of a fluorescent isatin derivative of 149 Amu that we named HDF for HrpB-dependent factor and that we purified from culture supernatants. The structure of the labile molecule was solved by using NMR and CD spectroscopy to be (3S)-3-hydroxy-indolin-2-one and confirmed by its chemical synthesis and MS spectrometry. HDF was found to be present at 20 nM in wild-type cultures grown on minimal medium, and its synthesis increased 15-fold upon overproduction of HrpB, confirming that HrpB activates HDF synthesis. The addition of tryptophan significantly stimulated HDF biosynthesis and was shown to represent the precursor molecule for HDF synthesis. A search for the biological function of the molecule revealed that HDF induces acyl-homoserine lactone receptor-mediated reporter activity of the well studied LuxR transcriptional regulator of Vibrio fischeri. Thus, our results provide evidence that the specificity of acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL) receptors is clearly broader than previously considered. The failure to detect induction by HDF of the described endogenous quorum-sensing circuits of the pathogen points to a role in interfering with cell-cell signaling of rivalling bacteria.
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PMID:The Ralstonia solanacearum pathogenicity regulator HrpB induces 3-hydroxy-oxindole synthesis. 1789 Mar 23

NANOG is a key transcriptional regulator of pluripotent stem cell (PSC) self-renewal. NANOG occupies promoters that are active and others that are repressed during self-renewal; however, the mechanisms by which NANOG regulates transcriptional repression and activation are unknown. We hypothesized that individual protein domains of NANOG control its interactions with both the promoters and its coregulators. We performed a detailed characterization of the functional domains in the human (h) NANOG protein, using a panel of deletion-mutant and point-mutant constructs. We determined that six amino acids in the homeodomain ((136)YKQVKT(141)) are sufficient for the nuclear localization of hNANOG. We also determined that the tryptophan-rich region (W) of hNANOG contains a CRM1-independent signal for nuclear export, suggesting a possible cellular shuttling behavior that has not been reported for hNANOG. We also show that at least four tryptophans are required for nuclear export. We also determined that similar to murine (m) NANOG, the W region of hNANOG contains a homodimerization domain. Finally, in vitro transactivation analyses identified distinct regions that enhance or diminish activity at gene promoters that are active during self-renewal. Specifically, the N-terminal region interferes with transcription and removal of this region that produced a "super-active" hNANOG with enhanced transcriptional activity. We also confirmed that the transcriptional activator in hNANOG is contained in the C-terminal region, similar to murine NANOG. In summary, this study has characterized the structure and function of hNANOG protein leading to an increased understanding of the mechanism by which hNANOG regulates both transcriptional activation and repression during PSC self-renewal.
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PMID:Molecular characterization of the human NANOG protein. 1935 Jun 81

Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum control of gene expression involves three LuxR-type signal receptors LasR, RhlR, and QscR that respond to the LasI- and RhlI-generated acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL) signals 3OC12-HSL and C4-HSL. We found that a LasR-RhlR-QscR triple mutant responds to acyl-HSLs by regulating at least 37 genes. LuxR homolog-independent activation of the representative genes antA and catB also occurs in the wild type. Expression of antA was influenced the most by C10-HSL and to a lesser extent by other acyl-HSLs, including the P. aeruginosa 3OC12-HSL and C4-HSL signals. The ant and cat operons encode enzymes for the degradation of anthranilate to tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates. Our results indicate that LuxR homolog-independent acyl-HSL control of the ant and cat operons occurs via regulation of antR, which codes for the transcriptional activator of the ant operon. Although P. aeruginosa has multiple pathways for anthranilate synthesis, one pathway-the kynurenine pathway for tryptophan degradation-is required for acyl-HSL activation of the ant operon. The kynurenine pathway is also the critical source of anthranilate for energy metabolism via the antABC gene products, as well as the source of anthranilate for synthesis of the P. aeruginosa quinolone signal. Our discovery of LuxR homolog-independent responses to acyl-HSLs provides insight into acyl-HSL signaling.
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PMID:LuxR homolog-independent gene regulation by acyl-homoserine lactones in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. 2049 77


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