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. 1978 Aug;135(2):511–516. doi: 10.1128/jb.135.2.511-516.1978

Evidence that the regulation of diphtheria toxin production is directed at the level of transcription.

J R Murphy, J L Michel, M Teng
PMCID: PMC222410  PMID: 98519

Abstract

It has been known for several decades that iron inhibits the production of diphtheria toxin by Corynebacterium diphtheriae by preventing expression at maximal levels. We examined the inhibition kinetics of toxin production after the addition of either iron or rifampin to iron-limited cultures of C7 (betatox+). Iron-mediated inhibition of toxin production was found to be linear within the range of 16 nM to 16 micron. The inhibition kinetics following the addition of iron or rifampin was almost identical. [3H]RNA extracted from iron-limited toxigenic C. diphtheriae was found to hybridize to a greater extent to corynephage beta DNA than either [3H]RNA extracted from toxigenic C. diphtheriae before the onset of toxin production or [3H]RNA extracted from nonlysogenic, nontoxigenic C. diphtheriae.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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