Disease relevance of traM

• Hfq is a regulator of F-plasmid TraJ and TraM synthesis in Escherichia coli [1].
• TraD15 exerted a dominant negative effect on DNA transfer but not on phage infection by pilus-specific phage R17, indicating that TraM-TraD interaction is important for conjugative DNA transfer but not for phage infection [2].

High impact information on traM

• TraM is essential for F plasmid-mediated bacterial conjugation, where it binds to the plasmid DNA near the origin of transfer, and recognizes a component of the transmembrane DNA transfer complex, TraD [3].
• Comparison of TraM to its Glu88 mutants predicted to stabilize the helical structure suggests that the protonated state is the active form for binding TraD in conjugation [3].
• Transfer is dependent on the expression of the plasmid transfer (tra) genes, which are controlled by three plasmid-encoded regulatory proteins: TraJ, TraY and TraM [4].
• Expression of the transfer genes is tightly controlled by a number of factors, including the following plasmid-encoded regulatory proteins: TraJ, the primary activator of the 33-kb tra operon, and the autoregulators TraM and TraY [1].
• Crystals have been obtained of both native and selenomethionine-substituted TraM by the vapour-diffusion method [5].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of traM

• DNase I protection analyses and electron microscopy were used to determine the affinity of IHF for oriT-containing DNA in the presence and absence of TraM [6].

References