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Transcriptional Analysis of the Lysine-Responsive and Riboswitch-Regulated lysC Gene of Bacillus subtilis

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Abstract

About 2% of the Bacillus subtilis genes are subject to regulation by riboswitch-controlled mechanisms. One of them is the l-lysine-dependent lysC gene which is turned on when the l-lysine concentration within the cytoplasm is low. In the presence of a high l-lysine concentration, only a 0.27-kb transcript is synthesized representing the riboswitch due to transcription termination. When the l-lysine concentration is low, the full-length 1.6-kb transcript is produced due to transcription anti-termination. Here, we show for the first time that even under conditions of transcription anti-termination the truncated form of the RNA is still predominant. This 0.27-kb transcript is neither the result of enhanced stability nor does it result from processing of the full-length transcript. When the region coding for the transcription terminator was removed, the riboswitch RNA failed to be produced. These data were confirmed by analysis of a transcriptional fusion between the promoter-riboswitch region of lysC with and without a functional transcriptional terminator and the lacZ reporter gene. The putative function(s) of the riboswitch under conditions of low l-lysine concentration is discussed.

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Acknowledgement

We thank the Bayerische Forschungsstiftung for financial support.

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  1. Institute of Genetics, University of Bayreuth, 95440, Bayreuth, Germany

    Trang Thi Phuong Phan & Wolfgang Schumann

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  1. Trang Thi Phuong Phan
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  2. Wolfgang Schumann
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Schumann.

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Phan, T.T.P., Schumann, W. Transcriptional Analysis of the Lysine-Responsive and Riboswitch-Regulated lysC Gene of Bacillus subtilis . Curr Microbiol 59, 463–468 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-009-9461-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-009-9461-4

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