Amino Acid Contacts between Sigma 70 Domain 4 and the Transcription Activators RhaS and RhaR

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Abstract
The RhaS and RhaR proteins are transcription activators that respond to the availability of l-rhamnose and activate transcription of the operons in the Escherichia coli l-rhamnose catabolic regulon. RhaR activates transcription of rhaSR, and RhaS activates transcription of the operon that encodes the l-rhamnose catabolic enzymes, rhaBAD, as well as the operon that encodes the l-rhamnose transport protein, rhaT. RhaS is 30% identical to RhaR at the amino acid level, and both are members of the AraC/XylS family of transcription activators. The RhaS and RhaR binding sites overlap the −35 hexamers of the promoters they regulate, suggesting they may contact the σ70 subunit of RNA polymerase as part of their mechanisms of transcription activation. In support of this hypothesis, our lab previously identified an interaction between RhaS residue D241 and σ70 residue R599. In the present study, we first identified two positively charged amino acids in σ70, K593 and R599, and three negatively charged amino acids in RhaR, D276, E284, and D285, that were important for RhaR-mediated transcription activation of the rhaSR operon. Using a genetic loss-of-contact approach we have obtained evidence for a specific contact between RhaR D276 and σ70 R599. Finally, previous results from our lab separately showed that RhaS D250A and σ70 K593A were defective at the rhaBAD promoter. Our genetic loss-of-contact analysis of these residues indicates that they identify a second site of contact between RhaS and σ70.