Plasticity of the cis-Regulatory Input Function of a Gene
| Autor: | Seagull Shavit, Alon Zaslaver, Yaakov Setty, Avraham E. Mayo, Uri Alon |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2006 |
| Předmět: |
OR gate
QH301-705.5 Evolution Molecular Sequence Data Regulator lac operon Bioengineering Computational biology Biology Genetics/Genomics/Gene Therapy General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Databases Genetic Escherichia coli Regulatory Elements Transcriptional Biology (General) Bioinformatics/Computational Biology Promoter Regions Genetic Variable (mathematics) Genetics Regulation of gene expression Base Sequence General Immunology and Microbiology General Neuroscience Point mutation Systems Biology Genetic Variation Gene Expression Regulation Bacterial Expression (computer science) Eubacteria Phenotype Lac Operon Mutation Synopsis General Agricultural and Biological Sciences AND gate Research Article |
| Zdroj: | PLoS Biology PLoS Biology, Vol 4, Iss 4, p e45 (2006) |
| ISSN: | 1545-7885 1544-9173 |
| Popis: | The transcription rate of a gene is often controlled by several regulators that bind specific sites in the gene's cis-regulatory region. The combined effect of these regulators is described by a cis-regulatory input function. What determines the form of an input function, and how variable is it with respect to mutations? To address this, we employ the well-characterized lac operon of Escherichia coli, which has an elaborate input function, intermediate between Boolean AND-gate and OR-gate logic. We mapped in detail the input function of 12 variants of the lac promoter, each with different point mutations in the regulator binding sites, by means of accurate expression measurements from living cells. We find that even a few mutations can significantly change the input function, resulting in functions that resemble Pure AND gates, OR gates, or single-input switches. Other types of gates were not found. The variant input functions can be described in a unified manner by a mathematical model. The model also lets us predict which functions cannot be reached by point mutations. The input function that we studied thus appears to be plastic, in the sense that many of the mutations do not ruin the regulation completely but rather result in new ways to integrate the inputs. A few point mutations in the lac operon of Escherichia coli are sufficient to change the nature of the transcriptional computation. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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