Mechanism of Regulation of the pts Promoter Transcription Initiation by Carbon Sources in Escherichia coli

Carbon Source의 변화에 의한 대장균의 pts Promoter 전사 조절 기작

The pts operon, which encodes several factors in the phosphoenolpyruvate:carbohydrate phosphotransferase system (PTS) of Escherichia coli, has multiple promoters which respond to different signals to facilitate quick adaptation to changes in growth conditions. The influence of an 1 kbp DNA region upstream of the pts P0 promoter on pts expression was studied in vitro by employing the DNA templates containing both P0 and P1 promoter with or without the 1 kbp upstream DNA region for in vitro transcription assay. The 1 kbp DNA region upstream of the pts P0 promoter, however, had no effect on pts transcription in vitro. The intracellular concentration of cAMP was measured when cells were grown in the presence of glucose, mannose, or mannitol. The transcription of P0 was increased maximally in the presence of glucose even though the concentration of cAMP in the condition was lowest while the transcription from the P1b was highest when cells were grown in the presence of mannose or mannitol even though the intracellular concentration of cAMP was lower than cells grown in the absence of the sugar. These results suggest the possibility of the existence of a glucose inducible repressor specific for the P0 promoter and a second repressor that is inducible by glucose, mannose and mannitol specific for the P1 promoter.

Escherichia coli의 중요한 sugar 흡수 system인 Phosphoenolpyruvate. carbohydrate phosphotransferase system(PTS)의 주요 구성 enzyme을 만드는 pts operon에는 여러 개의 promoter가 존재하여 어느 환경에서도 적절한 정도의 PTS 활성을 유지하도록 한다. E. coli pts operon의 P1 promoter transcription이 in vitro와 in vivo에서 차이가 나는 원인을 밝히기 위하여 pts promoter activity에 영향을 줄 수도 있는 pts P0 Promoter의 1kbp upstream에서부터 P0와 P1 promoter까지 transcription vector에 cloning하여 in vitro transcription assay를 한 결과, pts promoter의 upstream DNA가 pts P1 promoter의 in vitro transcription에 미치는 영향이 없음을 알 수 있었다. 여러 가지 PTS sugar들을 이용하여 in vivo에서 이들 sugar 들이 pts transcription에 미치는 영향을 cAMP농도 변화와 비교 조사한 바, glucose존재 하에 자랄 때보다 CAMP농도가 높은 mannose나 mannitol 존재 하에 bacteria가 자랄 때 P1b transcription은 증가하나 P0 transcription은 glucose존재 하에 자랄 때 더 높은 결과를 보였다. 이 결과는 P0에 glucose에 의해 induction되는 repressor가 존재하고, P1 에는 glucose. mannose, mannitol에 의해 공통적으로 induction되는 제 2의 repressor가 존재할 것이라는 가능성을 보여주는 것이다.