Disease relevance of slpA

• We cloned three genes from T. thermophilus that specifically repressed the expression of the slpA promoter in Escherichia coli [1].
• We have identified proteins that control the expression of slpA, the gene encoding the crystalline surface layer of Thermus thermophilus HB8 [1].

High impact information on slpA

• This result, in addition to further in vivo evidence presented here, supports the existence of a translational autoregulation in slpA expression [1].
• To gain further insight into the function of this cluster, we further focused on slpA, cwp66, and cwp84, the latter of which encodes a putative surface-associated protein with homology to numerous cysteine proteases [2].
• The Lb. brevis S-layer promoters were very efficiently recognized in L. lactis, Lb. brevis and Lb. plantarum, whereas in Lb. gasseri the slpA promoter region appeared to be recognized at a lower level and in Lb. casei the level of transcripts was below the detection limit [3].
• They have been classified according to their ability to recognize S-layer regions expressed in E. coli from plasmids containing different fragments of its coding gene, slpA [4].
• The expression of beta-galactosidase from a lac transcriptional fusion to slpA is increased six- to eightfold when the alpA+ gene is present on a multicopy plasmid [5].

Biological context of slpA

• We have used Tn10 and lambda placMu mutagenesis to identify a chromosomal locus, slpA, that is required for alpA+ suppression of delta lon [5].
• The nucleotide sequence of the slpA gene, which is responsible for the synthesis of the S-layer protein of Thermus thermophilus HB8, is described [6].

References