Publication Date:
1994-07-22
Description:
When nutrients become limiting, many bacteria differentiate and become resistant to environmental stresses. For Escherichia coli, this process is mediated by the sigma s subunit of RNA polymerase. Expression of sigma s was induced by homoserine lactone, a metabolite synthesized from intermediates in threonine biosynthesis. Homoserine lactone-dependent synthesis of sigma s was prevented by overexpression of a newly identified protein, RspA. The function of homoserine lactone derivatives in many cell density-dependent phenomena and the similarity of RspA to a Streptomyces ambofaciens protein suggest that synthesis of homoserine lactone may be a general signal of starvation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Huisman, G W -- Kolter, R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Jul 22;265(5171):537-9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7545940" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
4-Butyrolactone/*analogs & derivatives/metabolism/pharmacology
;
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Bacterial Proteins/*biosynthesis/chemistry/genetics/metabolism
;
Catalase/metabolism
;
Escherichia coli/genetics/*metabolism
;
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
;
Models, Biological
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Operon
;
Phenotype
;
Sigma Factor/*biosynthesis/genetics
;
*Signal Transduction
;
Transcription, Genetic
;
Vibrio/genetics
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
