Intragenomic and intergenomic comparisons of upstream nucleotide sequences
of archaeal genes were performed with the goal of predicting transcription
regulatory sites (operators) and identifying likely regulons, Learning sets
for the detection of regulatory sites were constructed using the available
experimental data on archaeal transcription regulation or by analogy with
known bacterial regulons, and further analysis was performed using iterativ
e profile searches. The information content of the candidate signals detect
ed by this method is insufficient for reliable predictions to be made. Ther
efore, this approach has to be complemented by examination of evolutionary
conservation in different archaeal genomes. This combined strategy resulted
in the prediction of a conserved heat shock regulon in all euryarchaea, a
nitrogen fixation regulon in the methanogens Methanococcus jannaschii and M
ethanobacterium thermoautotrophicum and an aromatic amino acid regulon in M
. thermoautotrophicum. Unexpectedly, the heat shock regulatory site was det
ected not only for genes that encode known chaperone proteins but also for
archaeal histone genes. This suggests a possible function for archaeal hist
ones in stress-related changes in DNA condensation. In addition, comparativ
e analysis of the genomes of three Pyrococcus species resulted in the predi
ction of their purine metabolism and transport regulon, The results demonst
rate the feasibility of prediction of at least some transcription regulator
y sites by comparing poorly characterized prokaryotic genomes, particularly
when several closely related genome sequences are available.