The upstream sequence of Mycobacterium leprae 18-kDa gene confers transcription repression activity in orientation-independent manner.
- Author:
Hyun Bae KIM
1
;
Ji Chang YOU
Author Information
1. Department of Pathology School of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea Seoul 137-701, Korea. jiyou@catholic.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
gene expression regulation;
genes, bacterial;
M. leprae;
promoter regions
- MeSH:
Bacterial Proteins/*genetics;
Down-Regulation/*genetics;
*Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial;
Mycobacterium leprae/*genetics;
Response Elements/*genetics;
Transcription, Genetic
- From:Experimental & Molecular Medicine
2004;36(6):510-514
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
In order to understand the role of the upstream region of the Mycobacterium leprae 18-kDa gene on the gene regulation, the region was divided into two at the -50 position from the first start codon of the gene and their effect on transcription was examined by using a LacZ transcriptional reporter gene assay. The presence of each of these two regions conferred transcription repression not only on its cognate M. lepraerae 18-kDa gene promoter, but also on a heterologous promoter such as the Mycobacterium bovis BCG hsp65 gene promoter. Moreover, it was found that these regions could confer transcription repression activity in both cases in an orientation-independent manner. Thus, these results indicate that the upstream region of the M. leprae 18-kDa gene harbors transcription repression responsive element(s) acting as an operator and can be further divided into two separately functional regions, suggesting a bipartite structure of the element(s). The identification of transcription repression activity of the upstream region in the M. leprae 18-kDa gene will contribute greatly for the understanding of the 18-kDa gene regulation mechanism, and provide also useful information for the manipulation of mycobacterium gene expression.
