Tansirichaiya, S;
Mullany, P;
Roberts, AP;
(2019)
Promoter activity of ORF-less gene cassettes isolated from the oral metagenome.
Scientific Reports
, 9
, Article 8388. 10.1038/s41598-019-44640-2.
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Abstract
Integrons are genetic elements consisting of a functional platform for recombination and expression of gene cassettes (GCs). GCs usually carry promoter-less open reading frames (ORFs), encoding proteins with various functions including antibiotic resistance. The transcription of GCs relies mainly on a cassette promoter (PC), located upstream of an array of GCs. Some integron GCs, called ORF-less GCs, contain no identifiable ORF with a small number shown to be involved in antisense mRNA mediated gene regulation. In this study, the promoter activity of ORF-less GCs, previously recovered from the oral metagenome, was verified by cloning them upstream of a gusA reporter, proving they can function as a promoter, presumably allowing bacteria to adapt to multiple stresses within the complex physico-chemical environment of the human oral cavity. A bi-directional promoter detection system was also developed allowing direct identification of clones with promoter-containing GCs on agar plates. Novel promoter-containing GCs were identified from the human oral metagenomic DNA using this construct, called pBiDiPD. This is the first demonstration and detection of promoter activity of ORF-less GCs from Treponema bacteria and the development of an agar plate-based detection system will enable similar studies in other environments.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Promoter activity of ORF-less gene cassettes isolated from the oral metagenome |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-019-44640-2 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44640-2 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Bacterial genetics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Eastman Dental Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Eastman Dental Institute > Microbial Diseases |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10076758 |
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