Premature terminator analysis sheds light on a hidden world of bacterial transcriptional attenuation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Bacterial transcription attenuation occurs through a variety of cis-regulatory elements that control gene expression in response to a wide range of signals. The signal-sensing structures in attenuators are so diverse and rapidly evolving that only a small fraction have been properly annotated and characterized to date. Here we apply a broad-spectrum detection tool in order to achieve a more complete view of the transcriptional attenuation complement of key bacterial species.

Results

Our protocol seeks gene families with an unusual frequency of 5' terminators found across multiple species. Many of the detected attenuators are part of annotated elements, such as riboswitches or T-boxes, which often operate through transcriptional attenuation. However, a significant

SUBMITTER: Naville M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2965389 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature