Transcriptional Units
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 76, No. 7, pp. 3194-3197, July 1979 Biochemistry Cyclic AMP as a modulator of polarity in polycistronic transcriptional units (positive regulation/rho factor/lactose and galactose operons/catabolite repression) AGNES ULLMANNt, EVELYNE JOSEPHt, AND ANTOINE DANCHINt tUnite de Biochimie Cellulaire, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France; and tInstitut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, 75005 Paris, France Communicated by Frangois Jacob, April 16, 1979 ABSTRACT The degree of natural polarity in the lactose scribed by Watekam et al. (7, 8) in sonicated bacterial extracts. and galactose operons of Escherichia coli is affected by aden- One unit is the amount of enzyme that converts 1 nmol of osine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP). This effect, mediated substrate per min at 280C (except for UDPGal epimerase, for by the cAMP receptor protein, is exerted at sites distinct from the promoter. Experiments performed with a mutant bearing which the assay temperature was 220C). a thermosensitive rho factor activity indicate that cAMP relieves Reagents and Enzymes. They were obtained from the fol- polarity by interfering with transcription termination. Con- lowing companies: trimethoprim from Calbiochem; all radio- flicting results in the literature concerning the role of cAMP active products from Amersham; isopropyl-f3-D-thiogalactoside receptor protein and cAMP in galactose operon expression can (IPTG), D-fucose, cAMP, UDPglucose dehydrogenase, and all be reconciled by the finding that cAMP stimulates the expres- substrates from Sigma; and all other chemicals from Merck. sion of operator distal genes without significantly affecting the proximal genes. Therefore, it appears necessary to reevaluate the classification o(the galactose operon as exhibiting cAMP- RESULTS mediated catabolite repression at the level of transcription Natural Polarity in Lactose Operon.
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