%0 Journal Article %A Serruto, Davide %A Galeotti, Cesira L. %T The signal peptide sequence of a lytic transglycosylase of Neisseria meningitidis is involved in regulation of gene expression %D 2004 %J Microbiology, %V 150 %N 5 %P 1427-1437 %@ 1465-2080 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.26780-0 %K pNPP, p-nitrophenyl phosphate %K TPMG, Tryptose phosphate/phenolphthalein/methyl green %K RNAP, RNA polymerase %I Microbiology Society, %X The 60 nucleotides encoding the signal peptide of the Neisseria meningitidis membrane-bound lytic transglycosylase (MltA) homologue GNA33 were found to exert a negative regulatory effect on expression of GNA33 from either a T7- or a Plac-driven system in Escherichia coli. Down-regulation was observed to occur at the transcriptional/post-transcriptional level and could possibly be ascribed to the formation of a stem–loop secondary structure within the signal peptide sequence. Slowing down the transcription rate through inhibition/titration of the RNA polymerase resulted in a considerable increase in mRNA accumulation, suggesting that a better coupling of translation to transcription would impede the formation of the putative secondary structure. Screening of synonymous mutations in the signal peptide sequence that showed high-level expression of an in-frame fusion to a reporter resulted in the isolation of several deletion mutants lacking most of the sequence participating in the putative secondary structure. Interestingly, the increase in the steady-state mRNA level observed in deletion mutants was higher, reaching a 300-fold increment, than that found in substitution mutants. Our results support the hypothesis that the rate of transcription controls the formation of a secondary structure in the region of the GNA33 transcript corresponding to the signal peptide sequence and this, when formed, negatively regulates expression. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.26780-0