<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Griffith, Kevin L</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Grossman, Alan D</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">A degenerate tripartite DNA-binding site required for activation of ComA-dependent quorum response gene expression in Bacillus subtilis.</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">J Mol Biol</style></secondary-title><alt-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">J. Mol. Biol.</style></alt-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Bacillus subtilis</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Bacterial Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Base Sequence</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Binding Sites</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Dimerization</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">DNA, Bacterial</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">DNA-Binding Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Peptide Synthases</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Phosphoprotein Phosphatases</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Promoter Regions, Genetic</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Protein Binding</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Quorum Sensing</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Sequence Analysis, DNA</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Transcription, Genetic</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Transcriptional Activation</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2008</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2008 Aug 29</style></date></pub-dates></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">381</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">261-75</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">In Bacillus subtilis, the transcription factor ComA activates several biological processes in response to increasing population density. Extracellular peptide signaling is used to coordinate the activity of ComA with population density. At low culture densities, when the concentration of signaling peptides is lowest, ComA is largely inactive. At higher densities, when the concentration of signaling peptides is higher, ComA is active and activates the transcription of at least nine operons involved in the development of competence and in the production of degradative enzymes and antibiotics. We found that ComA binds a degenerate tripartite sequence consisting of three DNA-binding determinants or &quot;recognition elements.&quot; Mutational analyses showed that all three recognition elements are required for transcription activation in vivo and for specific DNA binding by ComA in vitro. Degeneracy of the recognition elements in the ComA-binding site is an important regulatory feature for coordinating transcription with population density (i.e., promoters containing an optimized binding site have high activity at low culture density and are no longer regulated in the normal-density-dependent manner). We found that purified ComA forms a dimer in solution, and we propose a model for how two dimers of ComA bind to an odd number of DNA-binding determinants to activate transcription of target genes. This DNA-protein architecture for transcription activation appears to be conserved for ComA homologs in other Bacillus species.</style></abstract><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2</style></issue><custom1><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18585392?dopt=Abstract</style></custom1></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Griffith, Kevin L</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Grossman, Alan D</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Inducible protein degradation in Bacillus subtilis using heterologous peptide tags and adaptor proteins to target substrates to the protease ClpXP.</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Mol Microbiol</style></secondary-title><alt-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Mol. Microbiol.</style></alt-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Alleles</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Bacillus subtilis</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Bacterial Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Carrier Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Caulobacter crescentus</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">DNA-Binding Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Endopeptidase Clp</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Escherichia coli</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Escherichia coli Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Genetic Vectors</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Green Fluorescent Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Plasmids</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Promoter Regions, Genetic</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Protein Engineering</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">RNA, Bacterial</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Substrate Specificity</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2008</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2008 Nov</style></date></pub-dates></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">70</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">1012-25</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">The ability to manipulate protein levels is useful for dissecting regulatory pathways, elucidating gene function and constructing synthetic biological circuits. We engineered an inducible protein degradation system for use in Bacillus subtilis based on Escherichia coli and Caulobacter crescentusssrA tags and SspB adaptors that deliver proteins to ClpXP for proteolysis. In this system, modified ssrA degradation tags are fused onto the 3' end of the genes of interest. Unlike wild-type ssrA, these modified tags require the adaptor protein SspB to target tagged proteins for proteolysis. In the absence of SspB, the tagged proteins accumulate to near physiological levels. By inducing SspB expression from a regulated promoter, the tagged substrates are rapidly delivered to the B. subtilis ClpXP protease for degradation. We used this system to degrade the reporter GFP and several native B. subtilis proteins, including, the transcription factor ComA, two sporulation kinases (KinA, KinB) and the sporulation and chromosome partitioning protein Spo0J. We also used modified E. coli and C. crescentus ssrA tags to independently control the degradation of two different proteins in the same cell. These tools will be useful for studying biological processes in B. subtilis and can potentially be modified for use in other bacteria.</style></abstract><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">4</style></issue><custom1><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18811726?dopt=Abstract</style></custom1></record><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Griffith, Kevin L</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Shah, Ishita M</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Myers, Todd E</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">O'Neill, Michael C</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Wolf, Richard E</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Evidence for &quot;pre-recruitment&quot; as a new mechanism of transcription activation in Escherichia coli: the large excess of SoxS binding sites per cell relative to the number of SoxS molecules per cell.</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Biochem Biophys Res Commun</style></secondary-title><alt-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun.</style></alt-title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Bacterial Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Binding Sites</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Blotting, Western</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Cell Division</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">DNA-Binding Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Escherichia coli</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Escherichia coli Proteins</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Genome, Bacterial</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Kinetics</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Oxidative Stress</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Paraquat</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Protein Transport</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Trans-Activators</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Transcription Factors</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Transcriptional Activation</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2002</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2002 Mar 8</style></date></pub-dates></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">291</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">979-86</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">In response to the oxidative stress imposed by redox-cycling compounds like paraquat, Escherichia coli induces the synthesis of SoxS, which then activates the transcription of approximately 100 genes. The DNA binding site for SoxS-dependent transcription activation, the &quot;soxbox,&quot; is highly degenerate, suggesting that the genome contains a large number of SoxS binding sites. To estimate the number of soxboxes in the cell, we searched the E. coli genome for SoxS binding sites using as query sequence the previously determined optimal SoxS binding sequence. We found approximately 12,500 sequences that match the optimal binding sequence under the conditions of our search; this agrees with our previous estimate, based on information theory, that a random sequence the size of the E. coli genome contains approximately 13,000 soxboxes. Thus, fast-growing cells with 4-6 genomes per cell have approximately 65,000 soxboxes. This large number of potential SoxS binding sites per cell raises the interesting question of how SoxS distinguishes between the functional soxboxes located within the promoters of target genes and the plethora of equivalent but nonfunctional binding sites scattered throughout the chromosome. To address this question, we treated cells with paraquat and used Western blot analysis to determine the kinetics of SoxS accumulation per cell; we also determined the kinetics of SoxS-activated gene expression. The abundance of SoxS reached a maximum of 2,500 molecules per cell 20 min after induction and gradually declined to approximately 500 molecules per cell over the next 1.5 h. Given that activation of target gene expression began almost immediately and given the large disparity between the number of SoxS molecules per cell, 2,500, and the number of SoxS binding sites per cell, 65,000, we infer that SoxS is not likely to activate transcription by the usual &quot;recruitment&quot; pathway, as this mechanism would require a number of SoxS molecules similar to the number of soxboxes. Instead, we propose that SoxS first interacts in solution with RNA polymerase and then the binary complex scans the chromosome for promoters that contain a soxbox properly positioned and oriented for transcription activation. We name this new pathway &quot;pre-recruitment.&quot;</style></abstract><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">4</style></issue><custom1><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11866462?dopt=Abstract</style></custom1></record></records></xml>