Figure 1. Regulation of gene transcription in E. coli by YcgC.

The acetylated form of the transcriptional regulator RutR enhances the expression of its target genes, such as pmrD and gcd (left). Tu et al. have discovered that YcgC can remove acetyl groups (COCH₃; only the oxygen is shown in the figure) from at least two lysine residues on RutR (Lys52 and Lys62; middle). Moreover, deacetylation of RutR causes it to remove its own N-terminus. This deacetylated and truncated form of RutR represses the expression of pmrD and gcd (right). Further experiments showed that a serine called Ser200 (sidechain shown with OH) is crucial for YcgC’s catalytic activity.