Disease relevance of fecA

• Mutants in fecA and fecB could not transport iron via citrate. fecA-lac and fecB-lac operon fusions were constructed with the aid of phage Mu dl(Ap lac) [1].
• The fecA gene of E. coli B consists of 2,322 nucleotides and encodes a polypeptide containing a signal sequence of 33 amino acids [2].

High impact information on fecA

• The N-terminus of FecA interacts in the periplasm with the C-terminus of FecR, through which the signal is transferred across the cytoplasmic membrane into the cytoplasm, where it increases the activity of the sigma factor Fecl, which then directs the RNA polymerase to the fec promoter upstream of fecA [3].
• We report that in vivo the chromosomally encoded FecI protein activates transcription of the fecA and fecB transport genes in response to ferric citrate and the FecR protein [4].
• Mobility band shift of fecA promoter DNA caused by cell lysates required growth of cells in the presence of ferric citrate and expression of FecA, FecI and FecR [5].
• The low resistance mediated by two FecR'-BlaM proteins in a fecA deletion mutant was increased 20-fold by transformation with a fecA-encoding plasmid [6].
• FecR protein produced by fecR mutants impaired or constitutive in fecA transcription was protease resistant, indicating that conformational changes affect proper functioning of FecR [7].

Chemical compound and disease context of fecA

• Ferric citrate transport in Escherichia coli requires outer membrane receptor protein fecA [8].

Biological context of fecA

• The five transport genes fecABCDE form an operon and are transcribed from fecA to fecE [9].
• The nucleotide sequence of fec revealed five genes, fecABCDE, which are transcribed from fecA to fecE [10].
• The presence of fur+ plasmids repressed synthesis of the proteins fepA, fecA, fhuE and cir in a chromosomal fur mutant [11].
• The promoter region for the fecA mRNA, a likely site of action for FecI, is not related to the consensus promoter region for sigma 70 RNA polymerase in Ec K-12 [12].
• In Mu d1 insertion mutants upstream of fecA, the fec genes were not inducible by iron limitation and citrate, indicating a regulatory region, termed fecI, which controls fec gene expression [2].

Associations of fecA with chemical compounds

• Two genes, termed fecI and fecR, that mediate induction by iron(III) dicitrate have been identified upstream of fecA [9].
• The synthesis of the 2.5-kb fecA mRNA is regulated by both citrate and iron [12].

References