In response to nutrient deprivation, bacteria activate a conserved stress response pathway called the stringent response (SR). During SR activation in , SpoT synthesizes the secondary messengers guanosine 5'-diphosphate 3'-diphosphate and guanosine 5'-triphosphate 3'-diphosphate (collectively known as (p)ppGpp), which affect transcription by binding RNA polymerase (RNAP) to down-regulate anabolic genes. (p)ppGpp also impacts the expression of anabolic genes by controlling the levels and activities of their transcriptional regulators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe alphaproteobacterium thrives in oligotrophic environments and is able to optimally exploit minimal resources by entertaining an intricate network of gene expression control mechanisms. Numerous transcriptional activators and repressors have been reported to contribute to these processes, but only few studies have focused on regulation at the post-transcriptional level in . Small RNAs (sRNAs) are a prominent class of regulators of bacterial gene expression, and most sRNAs characterized today engage in direct base-pairing interactions to modulate the translation and/or stability of target mRNAs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTuberculosis remains the most pervasive infectious disease and the recent emergence of drug-resistant strains emphasizes the need for more efficient drug treatments. A key feature of pathogenesis, conserved between the human pathogen and the model pathogen is the metabolic switch to lipid catabolism and altered expression of virulence genes at different stages of infection. This study aims to identify genes involved in sustaining viable intracellular infection.
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