Escherichia coli CspA-family RNA chaperones are transcription antiterminators
- 5 July 2000
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 97 (14) , 7784-7789
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.97.14.7784
Abstract
CspA, the major cold-shock protein of Escherichia coli , is an RNA chaperone, which is thought to facilitate translation at low temperature by destabilizing mRNA structures. Here we demonstrate that CspA, as well as homologous RNA chaperones CspE and CspC, are transcription antiterminators. In vitro , the addition of physiological concentrations of recombinant CspA, CspE, or CspC decreased transcription termination at several intrinsic terminators and also decreased transcription pausing. In vivo , overexpression of cloned CspC and CspE at 37°C was sufficient to induce transcription of the metY - rpsO operon genes nusA , infB , rbfA , and pnp located downstream of multiple transcription terminators. Similar induction of downstream metY - rpsO operon genes was observed at cold shock, a condition to which the cell responds by massive overproduction of CspA. The products of nusA , infB , rbfA , and pnp —NusA, IF2, RbfA, and PNP—are known to be induced at cold shock. We propose that the cold-shock induction of nusA , infB , rbfA , and pnp occurs through transcription antitermination, which is mediated by CspA and other cold shock-induced Csp proteins.Keywords
This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mutations in and Monoclonal Antibody Binding to Evolutionary Hypervariable Region of Escherichia coli RNA Polymerase β′ Subunit Inhibit Transcript Cleavage and Transcript ElongationJournal of Biological Chemistry, 1998
- Nascent RNA in transcription complexes interacts with CspE, a small protein in E. coli implicated in chromatin condensation 1 1Edited by M. GottesmanJournal of Molecular Biology, 1998
- RNA Polymerase Slides Home: Pause and Termination Site RecognitionCell, 1997
- Effects of heterologous expression of CspB, the major cold shock protein of Bacillus subtilis, on protein synthesis in Escherichia coliMolecular Genetics and Genomics, 1997
- Suppression of a cold-sensitive mutation in 16S rRNA by overexpression of a novel ribosome-binding factor, RbfA.Genes & Development, 1995
- Termination-altering amino acid substitutions in the beta' subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase identify regions involved in RNA chain elongation.Genes & Development, 1994
- Structural and functional properties of the evolutionarily ancient Y‐box family of nucleic acid binding proteinsBioEssays, 1994
- Bipartite functional map of the E. coli RNA polymerase α subunit: Involvement of the C-terminal region in transcription activation by cAMP-CRPCell, 1991
- Initiation, attenuation and RNase III processing of transcripts from the Escherichia coli operon encoding ribosomal protein S15 and polynucleotide phosphorylaseJournal of Molecular Biology, 1986
- Differential stringent control of the tandem E. coli ribosomal RNA promoters from the rrnA operon expressed in vivo in multicopy plasmidsCell, 1983