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Structural basis for -10 promoter element melting by environmentally induced sigma factors.
Journal article

Structural basis for -10 promoter element melting by environmentally induced sigma factors.

  • Campagne S 1] Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. [2] Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Marsh ME Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland.
  • Capitani G Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland.
  • Vorholt JA Institute of Microbiology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Allain FH Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • 2014-02-18
Published in:
  • Nature structural & molecular biology. - 2014
Amino Acid Sequence
Binding Sites
Calorimetry
Cloning, Molecular
Crystallography, X-Ray
DNA, Single-Stranded
DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases
Escherichia coli
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Models, Molecular
Molecular Conformation
Molecular Sequence Data
Nucleotides
Phenotype
Promoter Regions, Genetic
Sigma Factor
English Bacterial transcription is controlled by sigma factors, the RNA polymerase subunits that act as initiation factors. Although a single housekeeping sigma factor enables transcription from thousands of promoters, environmentally induced sigma factors redirect gene expression toward small regulons to carry out focused responses. Using structural and functional analyses, we determined the molecular basis of -10 promoter element recognition by Escherichia coli σ(E), which revealed an unprecedented way to achieve promoter melting. Group IV sigma factors induced strand separation at the -10 element by flipping out a single nucleotide from the nontemplate-strand DNA base stack. Unambiguous selection of this critical base was driven by a dynamic protein loop, which can be substituted to modify specificity of promoter recognition. This mechanism of promoter melting explains the increased promoter-selection stringency of environmentally induced sigma factors.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/40713
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