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. 1990 Jun 25;18(12):3597–3603. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.12.3597

E. coli promoter spacer regions contain nonrandom sequences which correlate to spacer length.

B A Beutel 1, M T Record Jr 1
PMCID: PMC331015  PMID: 2194166

Abstract

The -10 and -35 regions of E. coli promoter sequences are separated by a spacer region which has a consensus length of 17 base-pairs. This region is thought to contribute to promoter function by correctly positioning the two conserved regions. We have performed a statistical evaluation of 224 spacer sequences and found that spacers which deviate from the 17 base-pair consensus length have nonrandom sequences in their upstream ends. Spacer regions which are shorter than 17 base-pairs in length have a significantly higher than expected frequency of purine-purine and pyrimidine-pyrimidine homo-dinucleotides at the six upstream positions. Spacer regions which are longer than 17 base-pairs in length have a significantly higher than expected frequency of purine-pyrimidine and pyrimidine-purine hetero-dinucleotides at these positions. This suggests that the nature of the purine-pyrimidine sequence at the upstream end of spacer regions affect promoter function in a manner which is related to the spacer length. We examine the spacer sequences as a function of spacer length and discuss some possible explanations for the observed relationship between sequence and length.

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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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