Identification and characterization of a self-regulated repressor of translocation of the Tn3 element.

Abstract

Gene fusions [in Escherichia coli] that bring expression of the lacZ gene under control of transcriptional and translational signals within the transposable element Tn3 were used to study regulation of Tn3-specified proteins. A gene encoding a 21,355-MW peptide that represses translocation of Tn3 and acts at the level of transcription to regulate its own synthesis was identified and sequenced; amber, missense and cis-dominant (operator-constitutive) point mutations in this gene were isolated and characterized.