Affiliation:
1. Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie, Institut fur Mikrobiologie, Biochemie undGenetik der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Abstract
The tre locus from Bacillus subtilis containing the genes treP, treA, and treR has been analyzed for its regulation. We demonstrate that at least treP and treA form an operon whose expression is regulated at the transcriptional level. TreR activity has been investigated in in vivo and in vitro studies. An insertional inactivation of treR led to a constitutive expression of treP and treA. Upstream of treP we identified a 248-bp DNA fragment containing a potential sigmaA-dependent promoter and two palindromes reflecting potential tre operators which led to complex formation with TreR-containing protein extracts in DNA retardation experiments. This complex formation is abolished in the presence of trehalose-6-phosphate, which probably acts as an inducer. Therefore, we assume that treR encodes the specific Tre repressor involved in regulation of the expression of the tre operon.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,Microbiology