Ry. Forng et al., PROMOTER MAPPING AND TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF THE IRON-REGULATEDNEISSERIA-GONORRHOEAE FBPA GENE, Journal of bacteriology, 179(9), 1997, pp. 3047-3052
In this study, we have mapped the promoter region of the Neisseria gon
orrhoeae ferric iron binding protein-encoding gene fbpA, determined th
e start point of transcription, and examined the accumulation of fbpA
mRNA, Primer extension analysis of the fbpA promoter region indicated
a single transcriptional start site located 51 bp upstream of the;ATG
translational start site, Northern blot analysis with a 200-bp fbpA st
ructural gene probe detected one transcript of 1.0 kb in RNAs extracte
d from gonococcal cultures grown under iron-restricted conditions; the
1.0-kb transcript was observed to accumulate at a steady rate through
out the growth cycle, In comparison, in cultures grown under iron-suff
icient conditions, the intensity of the 1.0-kb transcript was reduced
considerably, Isolation of total RNA from rifampin-treated cells indic
ated that the half-life of the 1.0-kb fbpA transcript in cells grown u
nder iron-restricted conditions was 1.2 +/- 0.2 min, while that of the
1.0-kb fbpA transcript obtained from cultures grown under iron-suffic
ient conditions was 0.5 +/- 0.1 min, Taken together, our results indic
ate that the fbpA promoter is regulated by iron and that transcription
and translation of FbpA are closely linked.