Abstract
The Escherichia coli chromosome carries seven cistrons encoding ribosomal RNA sequences1–3. In all cases studied, in vitro4–7 and in vivo8–10, it has been established that transcription is initiated from two tandem promoters. The expression of the rRNA cistrons is regulated in response to growth rate as well as to aminoacyl tRNA availability11. In the present study, a plasmid (pPSl) carrying the promoter region of the rrnA cistron fused to the terminator region of rrnB10 has been used for in vitro transcription experiments. The presence of the terminators (Tl and T2) together with the fact that supercoiled DNA is found to be a highly efficient template, provide an ideal in vitro system in which to study the functional interrelationship between the two tandem promoters of E. coli rRNA cistrons. The results suggest that the rate of rRNA synthesis in E. coli cells growing in various conditions, as reflected by the availability of RNA polymerase, is primarily dependent on the properties of the two tandem rRNA promoters.
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Glaser, G., Sarmientos, P. & Cashel, M. Functional interrelationship between two tandem E. coli ribosomal RNA promoters. Nature 302, 74–76 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/302074a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/302074a0
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