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secret to 6S: regulating RNA polymerase by ribo-sequestration

Regulating transcription under different conditions is vital to all organisms. As Escherichia coli shifts from exponential to stationary growth, regulation of transcription is achieved in large part by the tight binding of 6S RNA to Eσ⁷⁰, RNA polymerase with the σ⁷⁰ specificity subunit. Ribo-sequest...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular microbiology 2009-07, Vol.73 (2), p.137-140
Main Authors: Decker, Kimberly B, Hinton, Deborah M
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Regulating transcription under different conditions is vital to all organisms. As Escherichia coli shifts from exponential to stationary growth, regulation of transcription is achieved in large part by the tight binding of 6S RNA to Eσ⁷⁰, RNA polymerase with the σ⁷⁰ specificity subunit. Ribo-sequestration of Eσ⁷⁰ by 6S RNA serves to downregulate σ⁷⁰-dependent transcription, which is needed for exponential growth. This facilitates transcription from promoters dependent on stationary phase sigma, σs. Previous work has suggested that the 6S RNA binding to Eσ⁷⁰ simply mimics the Eσ⁷⁰/promoter interaction. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Klocko and Wassarman demonstrate that many of the contacts between residues within σ⁷⁰ region 4 and 6S RNA are distinct from those between region 4 and promoter DNA. Several residues that interact with 6S RNA are ones previously known to interact with protein activators of Eσ⁷⁰. Their work adds 6S RNA to the growing list of factors that can regulate Eσ⁷⁰ by interacting with region 4.
ISSN:0950-382X
1365-2958
1365-2958
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2958.2009.06759.x