Affiliation:
1. Shanmuga Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
2. National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India
Abstract
Transcription factors in the bacterium
E. coli
are rarely essential, and when they are essential, they are largely toxin-antitoxin systems. While studying transcription factors encoded in horizontally acquired regions in
E. coli
, we realized that the protein RacR, a putative transcription factor encoded by a gene on the
rac
prophage, is an essential protein. Here, using genetics, biochemistry, and bioinformatics, we show that its essentiality derives from its role as a transcriptional repressor of the
ydaS
and
ydaT
genes, whose products are toxic to the cell. Unlike type II toxin-antitoxin systems in which transcriptional regulation involves complexes of the toxin and antitoxin, repression by RacR is sufficient to keep
ydaS
transcriptionally silent.
Funder
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology
Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,Microbiology
Cited by
10 articles.
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