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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1979 Jul;76(7):3304–3308. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.7.3304

Differential sensitivity of gene expression in vitro to inhibitors of DNA gyrase.

H L Yang, K Heller, M Gellert, G Zubay
PMCID: PMC383813  PMID: 226966

Abstract

We have used the antibiotics coumermycin A1, novobiocin, and oxolinic acid, which are specific inhibitors of DNA gyrase, to study the coupled transcription and translation of several bacterial and plasmid genes in a DNA-directed cell-free system. The expression of different genes is reduced to different extents by inhibition of DNA gyrase activity. Among the genes tested, the lac operon, an rRNA gene, and the colicin gene of colicin E1 plasmid were found to be most sensitive, while the trp operon and some other genes in colicin E1 plasmid were relatively unaffected by the inhibitors. These results, together with earlier work on the transcription of circular DNA templates, indicate that DNA supercoiling can significantly enhance transcription from certain promoters.

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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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