US EPA

1442987 

Journal Article 

Genome-wide survey for PilR recognition sites of the metal-reducing prokaryote Geobacter sulfurreducens 

Krushkal, J; Juarez, K; Barbe, JF; Qu, Y; Andrade, A; Puljic, M; Adkins, RM; Lovley, DR; Ueki, T 

2010 

Yes 

Gene
ISSN: 0378-1119
EISSN: 1879-0038 

469 

1-2 

31-44 

English 

20708667 

10.1016/j.gene.2010.08.005 

WOS:000284455900004 

Geobacter sulfurreducens is a species from the bacterial
family Geobacteraceae, members of which participate in bioenergy production and in environmental
bioremediation. G. sulfurreducens pili are electrically conductive and are required for Fe(III)
oxide reduction and for optimal current production in microbial fuel cells. PilR is an enhancer
binding protein, which is an activator acting together with the alternative sigma factor. RpoN,
in transcriptional regulation. Both RpoN and FUR are involved in regulation of expression of the
pilA gene, whose product is pilin, a structural component of a pilus. Using bioinformatic
approaches, we predicted G. sulfurreducens sequence elements that are likely to be regulated by
FUR. The functional importance of the genome region containing a PilR binding site predicted
upstream of the pilA gene was experimentally validated. The predicted G. sulfurreducens PilR
binding sites are similar to FUR binding sites of Pseudomonas and Moraxella. While the number of
predicted PilR-regulated sites did not deviate from that expected by chance, multiple sites were
predicted upstream of genes with roles in biosynthesis and function of pili and flagella, in
secretory pathways, and in cell wall biogenesis, suggesting the possible involvement of G.
sulfurreducens PilR in regulation of production and assembly of pili and flagella. (C) 2010
Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 

Pilin; NifA; Transcription; Regulation; Operon; Binding site