Organization of a partial S10 operon and its transcriptional analysis in Flavobacterium hibernum strain W22

Abstract

A cluster of six genes from Flavobacterium hibernum strain W22, fus-rpsJ-rplC-rplD-rplW-rplB, was cloned and sequenced. A short fragment upstream of rplC, but not of rpsJ, showed strong promoter activity in flavobacteria. TATCTTTG and TTG motifs that are conserved in Flavobacterium promoters were found immediately upstream of the transcription start point of rplC, at the -7 and -33 positions, respectively. RT-PCR analysis of the transcripts revealed that rpsJ and rplC are expressed as separate transcriptional units, whereas rplC and rplD-rplW-rplB are cotranscribed as a single mRNA, in contrast to the situation in the Gammaproteobacteria, which have a single transcriptional unit of 11 ribosomal S10 genes. © 2006 Federation of European Microbiological Societies.