Disease relevance of rpsU

• The rpsU-dnaG-rpoD macromolecular synthesis operon of E. coli [1].

High impact information on rpsU

• The macromolecular synthesis (MMS) operon contains three essential genes (rpsU, dnaG, rpoD) whose products (S21, primase, sigma-70) are necessary for the initiation of protein, DNA, and RNA synthesis respectively [2].
• Significant expression of the rpsU and rpoD genes was observed in the in vitro dipeptide system using plasmid pBS105, which contains both external and internal promoters [3].

Biological context of rpsU

• The most significant differences between the two operons are observed in the molecular size of the first genes (P23 and rpsU), the complete lack of amino acid homology between P23 and S21, the molecular weights of the two rpoD genes, the size of the intercistronic region between the first two genes, and the regulatory elements of the operon [4].
• Translational modulation using isoaccepting tRNA availability may therefore be part of the mechanism of keeping the dnaG gene expression low, while expression of the adjacent rpsU and rpoD genes on the same mRNA transcript is high [5].
• The terminator sequence, T1, located between rpsU and dnaG is conserved at 31 positions in nine enterobacterial species, suggesting the importance of primary sequence in addition to secondary structure for transcription termination [2].
• The complete nucleotide sequence of 5-kb DNA fragment immediately 5' to the rpsU-dnaG-rpoD macromolecular-synthesis operon in Escherichia coli has been determined [6].

Physical interactions of rpsU

• The rpoD gene is part of a complex operon which also includes the genes for ribosomal protein S21 (rpsU) and primase (dnaG) [3].

Other interactions of rpsU

• The three genes are in the order rpsU, dnaG rpoD, and are all encoded by the same DNA strand [7].

References