Export-defective lamB protein is a target for translational control caused by ompC porin overexpression

Abstract

Overexpression of OmpC protein from an inducible plasmid vector reduced the amount of the precursor form of LamB protein in LamB signal sequence mutants. The stability of the precursor form of LamB protein was not affected, indicating that the effect of OmpC overexpression was on the synthesis of the precursor rather than on degradation. These results indicate that a functional signal sequence is not required on an outer membrane protein for it to be a target for translational control.