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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
. 1975 Aug;72(8):2881–2885. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.8.2881

Effects of guanosine tetraphosphate on cell-free synthesis of Escherichia coli ribosomal RNA and other gene products.

G Reiness, H L Yang, G Zubay, M Cashel
PMCID: PMC432882  PMID: 1103124

Abstract

A cell-free system derived from E. coli is described in which mature-sized 16S and 23S ribosomal RNAs (rRNA) are synthesized at a high relative rate, comprising 17-25% of the total transcription. The addition of guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) to this system results in up to a 5-fold selective inhibition of rRNA accumulation. This effect is exerted at the level of synthesis rather than degradation. It is concluded that ppGpp, which is produced in large amounts by E. coli during amino-acid deprivation, could mediate the decrease in rRNA synthesis that accompanies such deprivation. The expression of other genes has also been investigated. No selective reduction of transfer RNA synthesis by ppGpp is observed. The trp and lac operons are found to be stimulated at the transcriptional level by the presence of this nucleotide. It is hypothesized that ppGpp interacts with the RNA polymerase in such a manner as to alter the affinity of the enzyme for promoters in an operon-specific fashion.

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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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