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Volume 169, Issue 5

An unexpected abundance of bidirectional promoters within Typhimurium plasmids Open Access

Abstract

Transcription of the DNA template, to generate an RNA message, is the first step in gene expression. The process initiates at DNA sequences called promoters. Conventionally, promoters have been considered to drive transcription in a specific direction. However, in recent work, we showed that many prokaryotic promoters can drive divergent transcription. This is a consequence of key DNA sequences for transcription initiation being inherently symmetrical. Here, we used global transcription start site mapping to determine the prevalence of such bidirectional promoters in Typhimurium. Surprisingly, bidirectional promoters occur three times more frequently in plasmid components of the genome compared to chromosomal DNA. Implications for the evolution of promoter sequences are discussed.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): cappable-seq , pervassive , RNA polymerase , RNA-seq and transcription
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Wellcome (Award PhD studentship)
    • Principle Award Recipient: AlistairD Middlemiss
  • Leverhulme Trust (Award RPG-2018-198)
    • Principle Award Recipient: DavidC Grainger
  • Wellcome (Award 212193/Z/18/Z)
    • Principle Award Recipient: DavidC Grainger
© 2023 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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2023-05-19
2024-04-19
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An unexpected abundance of bidirectional promoters within Salmonella Typhimurium plasmids
Microbiology 169, 001339 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001339
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001339
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001339
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