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PMID: 8306957 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

An iron-sulfur center essential for transcriptional activation by the redox-sensing SoxR protein.

The EMBO journal ·Vol. 13 ·No. 1 ·1994-01-01 ·Pages 138-46

Hidalgo E, Demple B

Abstract

The soxRS oxidative stress regulon of Escherichia coli is triggered by superoxide (O2.-) generating agents or by nitric oxide through two consecutive steps of gene activation. SoxR protein has been proposed as the redox sensing gene activator that triggers this cascade of gene expression. We have now characterized two forms of SoxR: Fe-SoxR contained non-heme iron (up to 1.6 atoms per monomer); apo-SoxR was devoid of Fe or other metals. The spectroscopic properties of Fe-SoxR indicated that it contains a redox active iron-sulfur (FeS) cluster that is oxidized upon extraction from E. coli. Fe-SoxR and apo-SoxR bound the in vivo target, the soxS promoter, with equal affinities and protected the same region from DNase I in vitro. However, only Fe-SoxR stimulated transcription initiation at soxS in vitro > 100-fold, similar to the activation of soxS expression in vivo. This stimulation occurred at a step after the binding of RNAP and indicates a conformational effect of oxidized Fe-SoxR on the soxS promoter. The variable redox state of the SoxR FeS cluster may thus be employed in vivo to modulate the transcriptional activity of this protein in response to specific types of oxidative stress.

MeSH Terms
Bacterial Proteins/chemistry,isolation & purification,metabolism Base Sequence DNA, Bacterial DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases/metabolism Escherichia coli Iron/metabolism Iron-Sulfur Proteins/chemistry,metabolism Metalloproteins/chemistry,metabolism Molecular Sequence Data Nonheme Iron Proteins Oxidation-Reduction Promoter Regions, Genetic Spectrum Analysis Sulfur/metabolism Transcription Factors/chemistry,isolation & purification,metabolism Transcriptional Activation
Chemicals
Bacterial Proteins DNA, Bacterial Iron-Sulfur Proteins Metalloproteins Nonheme Iron Proteins Transcription Factors SoxR protein, Bacteria Sulfur Iron DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Hidalgo E
Department of Molecular and Cellular Toxicology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115.
Demple B
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Article Info
Journal
The EMBO journal
Abbr.
EMBO J
ISSN
0261-4189
Published
1994-01-01
Pages
138-46
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
8208664
PMCID
PMC394787
Subset
IM
Grants
NCI NIH HHS · CA37831 · United States
External Links
PubMed source PMC Full Text View journal details
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