Peptides designed from a bacteriophage capsid protein function as synthetic transcription repressors.

ABSTRACT: The bacteriophage capsid protein, Psu (polarity suppression), inhibits the bacterial transcription terminator, Rho. In an effort to find nontraditional antibacterial agents, we previously designed peptides from the Psu C terminus that function as inhibitors of Rho. Here, we demonstrated that these peptides have positive surface-charge densities, and they downregulate many genes in Escherichia coli. We hypothesized that these peptides could bind to nucleic acids and repress gene expression. One of these peptides, peptide 33, represses in vitro transcription from the T7A1 and P_lac promoters efficiently by blocking the access of RNA polymerase to the promoter, a mode of transcription repression akin to many bacterial repressors. In vivo, expressions of the peptides reduce the total

SUBMITTER: Sharma PV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10692717 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature