Regulation of dev, an operon that includes genes essential for Myxococcus xanthus development and CRISPR-associated genes and repeats.

ABSTRACT: Expression of dev genes is important for triggering spore differentiation inside Myxococcus xanthus fruiting bodies. DNA sequence analysis suggested that dev and cas (CRISPR-associated) genes are cotranscribed at the dev locus, which is adjacent to CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). Analysis of RNA from developing M. xanthus confirmed that dev and cas genes are cotranscribed with a short upstream gene and at least two repeats of the downstream CRISPR, forming the dev operon. The operon is subject to strong, negative autoregulation during development by DevS. The dev promoter was identified. Its -35 and -10 regions resemble those recognized by M. xanthus sigma(A) RNA polymerase, the homolog of Escherichia coli sigma(70), but the spacer may be too long (20 bp

SUBMITTER: Viswanathan P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1913320 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature