Non-equilibrium repressor binding kinetics link DNA damage dose to transcriptional timing within the SOS gene network.

ABSTRACT: Biochemical pathways are often genetically encoded as simple transcription regulation networks, where one transcription factor regulates the expression of multiple genes in a pathway. The relative timing of each promoter's activation and shut-off within the network can impact physiology. In the DNA damage repair pathway (known as the SOS response) of Escherichia coli, approximately 40 genes are regulated by the LexA repressor. After a DNA damaging event, LexA degradation triggers SOS gene transcription, which is temporally separated into subsets of 'early', 'middle', and 'late' genes. Although this feature plays an important role in regulating the SOS response, both the range of this separation and its underlying mechanism are not experimentally defined. Here we show that, at low doses of

SUBMITTER: Culyba MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5999292 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature