The structure and function of the regulatory elements of the Escherichia coli uvrB gene

The construction and properties of recombinant plasmids carrying the Escherichia coli uvrB gene, including its transcriptional- and translational regulatory elements, is reported. The DNA sequence of the region, which governs the expression of the uvrB gene, has been determined. Within this sequence two non-overlapping DNA segments match the model sequence for Escherichia coli promoters (1). The ‘-10 regions’ and the ‘-35 regions’ of the proposed uvrB promoters are, respectively, 5′TAAAAT (P1), 5′TATAAT (P2) and 5′TTGGCA (P1), 5′GTGATG (P2). The existence and the position of these promoters has been established by elimination of one promoter (P2), using molecular cloning procedures, by length measurements of in vitro synthesized ‘run-off’ transcripts and by protection of the uvrB regulatory region for S1 nuclease digestion using in vivo made RNA. Potential sites of interaction within the uvrB regulatory region with regulatory proteins, such as the LexA protein (2) and the UvrC protein (3) are discussed.