Regulation of the cyanobacterial psbA genes in response to light intensity : cis-regulatory elements and their interaction with trans-acting factor(S) /

Three psba genes encoding the Dl protein of the photosystem

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Li, Rixin
Format: Thesis Book
Language:English
Published: [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified] ; 1994.
Subjects:
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Description
Summary:Three psba genes encoding the Dl protein of the photosystem
11 reaction center are differentially expressed under
different light intensities in the cyanobacterium
Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7942. When light intensity is
increased from 125 liE.M-2-S-1 to 750-M-2.S-1, the expression
of psbAI is reduced but that of both psbAII and psbAIII is
rapidly induced. A transcriptional lacz reporter gene was
developed to characterize the ciscontrolling elements of the
three psba genes. The following elements were identified.
Functional promoters, comparable to Escherichia Coli a7O
promoters in position and sequence, confer constitutive
expression of the genes under both low and high light
intensities. At least two other distinct cis elements are
present in the regulatory regions of psbAII and psbAIII:
negative elements upstream of the promoters down-regulate the
expression of the corresponding gene, and sequences
downstream of the promoters that correspond to the
untranslated leader regions of the mRNAs are responsible for
increased expression under high light. When these light-
responsive elements were combined with an E. coli promoter
(conII) in different positions and orientations, the
expression of the conII-lacZ gene was induced 4 to 11 fold.
This is the first demonstration of enhancer elements in
cyanobacteria. The high-light induction by these enhancers
is position independent but orientation dependent. When the
elements were combined with the conII promoter in the correct
orientation, they also conferred a small but reproducible
level of light-responsive expression on this E. coli
promoter.
Soluble proteins from Synechococcus enriched for DNA-binding
activity was demonstrated to specifically bind to the psbAII
enhancer and highlight-responsive DNA sequences downstream of
the transcription start site. In vivo, protein binding to
the upstream region of psbAII was observed only in high-light
exposed cell samples but not in those maintained at low
light. When 12 bp from the psbAII protein binding sites were
deleted, protein binding was impaired and high-light
induction of both transcriptional and translational lacz
reporters was significantly reduced, indicating that the
protein binding to this region is required for high-light-
induced psbAII gene expression. The mutant element also
showed impaired enhancer activity when combined with the
heterologous E. coli conII promoter.
Item Description:Vita.
"Major Subject: Biology".
Physical Description:xi, 91 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm.
Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references.