Between computational predictions and high-throughput transcriptional profiling: in depth expression analysis of the OppB trans-membrane subunit of Escherichia coli OppABCDF oligopeptide transporter

Abstract

Bacterial oligopeptide transporters encoded by arrays of opp genes are implicated in a wide variety of physiological functions including nutrient acquisition, cell-to-cell communication, host-pathogen interaction. Combining the five opp genes in one oppABCDF operon of Escherichia coli assumes unified principle of their transcriptional regulation, which should provide a comparable amounts of translated products. This, however, contradicts the experimentally detected disproportion in the abundance of periplasmic OppA and the trans-membrane subunits OppB and OppC. As a first step towards understanding differential regulation of intraoperonic genes we examined genomic region proximal to oppB for its competence to initiate RNA synthesis using in silico promoter predictions, data of high-throughput RNA sequencing and targeted transcription assay. A number of transcription start sites (TSSs), whose potency depends on the presence of cationic oligopeptide protamine in cultivation medium, was found at the end of oppA and in the early coding part of oppB. We also show that full-size OppB conjugated with EGFP is produced under the control of its own genomic regulatory region and may be detected in analytical quantities of bacterial cell culture.

Keywords: Cationic oligopeptide; Computational predictions; Oligopeptide transporters; Promoter; Regulation of transcription; Transcriptome.