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Alternative promoters in the pst operon of Escherichia coli

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Abstract

The pst operon of Escherichia coli is composed of five genes pstS, pstC, pstA, pstB and phoU, that encode a high-affinity phosphate transport system and a negative regulator of the PHO regulon. Transcription of pst is induced under phosphate shortage and is initiated at the promoter located upstream of the first gene of the operon, pstS. Here, we show by four different technical approaches the existence of additional internal promoters upstream of pstC, pstB and phoU. These promoters are not induced by Pi-limitation and do not possess PHO-box sequences. Plasmids carrying the pst internal genes partially complement chromosomal mutations in their corresponding genes, indicating that they are translated into functional proteins.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). Meire Aguena was a recipient of FAPESP Ph.D. scholarship 02/04070-9. Juliana Velasco was a recipient of a CNPq undergraduate scholarship. We also thank FAPESP and CNPq for supported travel allowances for Ezra Yagil travel allowances to Brazil. Luiz Gustavo de Almeida performed the determination of Pi concentration in LB and medium A.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374, São Paulo, SP, 05508-900, Brazil

    Beny Spira, Meire Aguena & Juliana Velasco de Castro Oliveira

  2. Department of Biochemistry, Tel-Aviv University, 69978, Tel-Aviv, Israel

    Ezra Yagil

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  1. Beny Spira
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  2. Meire Aguena
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  3. Juliana Velasco de Castro Oliveira
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  4. Ezra Yagil
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Correspondence to Beny Spira.

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Communicated by D. Andersson.

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Spira, B., Aguena, M., de Castro Oliveira, J.V. et al. Alternative promoters in the pst operon of Escherichia coli . Mol Genet Genomics 284, 489–498 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-010-0584-x

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