Remote Regulation by VirB, the Transcriptional Anti-Silencer of Shigella Virulence Genes, Provides Mechanistic Information.

Classical models of bacterial transcription show regulators binding close to promoter elements to exert their effect. However, the scope for long-range regulation exists, especially by nucleoid structuring proteins, like H-NS. Here, long-range regulation by VirB, a transcriptional regulator that alleviates H-NS-mediated silencing of key virulence genes in Shigella species, is explored in vivo to test the limits of long-range regulation and provide further mechanistic insight.