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Infection and Immunity, January 2001, p. 186-193, Vol. 69, No. 1
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.1.186-193.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Novel Group of Virulence Activators within the AraC Family That Are Not Restricted to Upstream Binding Sites

George P. Munson, Lisa G. Holcomb, and June R. Scott*

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322

Received 3 August 2000/Returned for modification 21 September 2000/Accepted 2 October 2000

Several regulators within the AraC family control the expression of genes known or thought to be required for virulence of bacterial pathogens. One of these, Rns, activates transcription from an unprecedented variety of binding-site locations. Although nearly all prokaryotic activators bind within a small region upstream and adjacent to the promoter that they regulate, Rns does not bind within this region to activate its own promoter, Prns. Instead, to activate Prns, Rns requires one binding site 224.5 bp upstream and one downstream of the transcription start site. We show in this study that several other AraC family activators recognize the same binding sites as Rns and share with it the ability to utilize a downstream binding site. Like Rns, other members of this group of activators positively regulate the expression of virulence factors in pathogenic bacteria. These regulators are also able to activate transcription from promoter-proximal upstream binding sites since they are able to substitute for Rns at Pcoo, a promoter with only upstream binding sites. Thus, Rns is the prototype for a group of regulators, which include CfaR, VirF, AggR, and CsvR and which activate transcription from locations that are more diverse than those of any other known activator.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322. Phone: (404) 727-0402. Fax: (404) 727-8999. E-mail: Scott{at}microbio.emory.edu.

Infection and Immunity, January 2001, p. 186-193, Vol. 69, No. 1
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.1.186-193.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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