Carbodiimide inactivation of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase promoters on supercoiled simian virus 40 and ColE1 DNAs occurs by a one-hit process at salt concentrations in the physiological range

Improving CMC-derivatization of pseudouridine in RNA for mass spectrometric detection

A protocol that utilizes matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) and N-cyclohexyl-N'-beta-(4-methylmorpholinium)ethylcarbodiimide (CMC) derivatization to detect the post-transcriptionally modified nucleoside, pseudouridine, in RNA has been optimized for RNase digests. Because pseudouridine is mass-silent (i.e., the mass of pseudouridine is the same as the mass of uridine), after CMC-derivatization and alkaline treatment, all pseudouridine residues exhibit a mass shift of 252 Da that allows its presence to be easily detected by mass spectrometry. This protocol is illustrated by the direct MALDI-MS identification of pseudouridines within Escherichia coli tRNA(TyrII) starting from microgram amounts of sample. During this optimization study, it was discovered that the post-transcriptionally modified nucleoside 2-methylthio-N(6)-isopentenyladenosine, which is present in bacterial tRNAs, also retains a CMC unit after derivatization and incubation with base. Thus, care must be exercised when applying this MALDI-based CMC-derivatization approach for pseudouridine detection to samples containing transfer RNAs to minimize the misidentification of pseudouridine.

Quantitative analysis of carbodiimide modified DNA and immunoprobing by adduct specific antibodies

Antibodies have been raised against N-cyclohexyl-N-(4-methylmorpholinium)ethyl carbodiimide (CMC) modified single-stranded DNA and characterized by competitive and non-competitive immunoassays to be highly specific for CMC base adduct in homopolymers poly(dG), poly(dT) and DNA. The antibodies recognize picogram concentrations of CMC treated DNA with no cross reactivity to at least 1000-fold excess of unmodified DNA or CMC treated poly(dA). The detection limit of antibodies at 1.4 fmol CMC adduct allows quantitation at a CMC/base ratio of 4.6.10(-7). Based upon single modified base-containing synthetic oligomers, a 7-fold higher binding preference is observed for CMC modified thymine than guanine bases. CMC binding to supercoiled DNA is found to depend upon reaction temperature and ionic strength. CMC-modified supercoiled SV40 and ColE1 DNA, exhibit specific antibody binding proportional to the DNA concentration and extent of CMC modification. However, antibody binding observed is independent of the conformation or strandedness of CMC-modified DNA. DNA extensively modified with CMC retains its inherent capacity to specifically and quantitatively hybridize with complementary DNA immobilized to membranes upon direct blotting or Southern transfers from gels. Hybridized CMC-DNA, through antibody binding, provides for the sensitive and non-isotopic detection of the target DNA sequences.

Local supercoil-stabilized DNA structures

The DNA double helix exhibits local sequence-dependent polymorphism at the level of the single base pair and dinucleotide step. Curvature of the DNA molecule occurs in DNA regions with a specific type of nucleotide sequence periodicities. Negative supercoiling induces in vitro local nucleotide sequence-dependent DNA structures such as cruciforms, left-handed DNA, multistranded structures, etc. Techniques based on chemical probes have been proposed that make it possible to study DNA local structures in cells. Recent results suggest that the local DNA structures observed in vitro exist in the cell, but their occurrence and structural details are dependent on the DNA superhelical density in the cell and can be related to some cellular processes.

Detection and location of single-base mutations in large DNA fragments by immunomicroscopy

A technique whereby single-base mutations can be detected by immunomicroscopy of DNA heteroduplexes is described. Four constructs of the filamentous phage M13 were prepared so as to differ by a single base at the same site. Heteroduplexes were prepared and reacted with a water-soluble carbodiimide, with polyclonal antibodies specific for the carbodiimide, and then with a second antibody linked to an electrondense marker. Electron microscopy of the heteroduplexes indicated that the label was located at 4.9 to 5.1 kb in the 7.2-kb phage. The known site of the mismatch was 4.96 kb. Also, plasmids containing inserts of a fragment from the 5' end of hemoglobin A or hemoglobin S were prepared. The median location of the label in heteroduplex molecules was 2.9 kb. The known site of the mismatch was 2.65 kb in the 4.9-kb plasmid. The procedure requires about 10 days to analyze two samples of plasmid or phage DNA.

Topological unwinding of strong and weak promoters by RNA polymerase. A comparison between the lac wild-type and the UV5 sites of Escherichia coli

Two Escherichia coli control regions have been compared in their ability to be unwound by RNA polymerase during formation of the transcriptionally active ("open") complex: the wild-type control region, consisting of two overlapping binding sites P1 and P2, both weakly transcribed, and an "up" P1 mutant, the strong lac L8UV5 promoter. The final complexes were characterized by their topological unwinding, by DNase I and orthophenanthroline footprints, as well as by methylation of unpaired cytosine residues. At the wild-type control region, the RNA polymerase footprint is weak, and single-strand formation is incomplete and slow. The same signals are strong, complete and quickly established at lac L8UV5; yet the final complexes were found to be equally unwound (by 1.7 turns) in the absence of nucleotide substrates as well as during an abortive initiation cycle. At the lac wild-type region, open complex formation occurs slowly enough to permit the measurement of the extent of a single-stranded region and of topological unwinding during the latency period. Not all the final species are active and unwinding appears to precede, in time, full open-complex formation. At the lac UV5 promoter the same conclusion was reached by a different method involving those changes in the various parameters that characterize open-complex formation monitored by an abortive initiation assay, conducted at increasing levels of template superhelicity. From both approaches we conclude that, at these promoters, the formation of the single-stranded region occurs at the expense of a negative change in linking number, initially stored in a closed intermediate, perhaps as negative writhing. Furthermore, abortive transcription assays indicate that the specific initiation efficiency of the species stored at both promoters, P1 and P2, on the wild-type template is increased as a whole with increasing superhelicity (conversion of inactive species to active ones, increased efficiency of active ones). We conclude that negative supercoiling is not an extra-regulatory element of the lactose system, allowing modulation of expression of the wild-type promoter to the profit of P1. Instead, P2 and P1, in the absence of active catabolite receptor protein (CRP-cAMP), appear to be equally weak and to be equally affected by negative supercoiling in the range of superhelical densities examined. The physiological importance of the P1-P2 competition in the regulation of expression in this region is thus questioned. The major effect of CRP-cAMP stimulation appears to be the direct activation at the P1 promoter.

In vivo and in vitro effect of mutations in tetA promoter from pSC101: insertion of poly(dA.dT) stretch in the spacer region does not inactivate the promoter

Two mutants, mapping at the HindIII site (between the consensus sequences) of the pSC101 tetA promoter, were studied: MA2 corresponds to a 4 bp deletion between positions -12 and -15; B30 bears a 44 bp insertion C(TA)21 G at the HindIII site. Both mutants were assayed in vivo (ability of the plasmid to confer resistance to tetracycline, plasmid-directed protein synthesis, S1-mapping of mRNA) and in vitro (abortive initiation assay). Compared to w.t., MA2 is a poor promoter in vivo; RNA polymerase binding, complex activation and rate of initial oligonucleotide synthesis are strongly reduced in vitro; this is in keeping with the known effects of altering the consensus elements in E. coli promoters. In contrast, B30 shows in vivo a promoter activity only slightly reduced in comparison to that of the w.t. tetA promoter; both in vivo and in vitro, the transcription start site is outside and downstream the (TA)21 stretch, 5-7 bp upstream that found in the w.t. To adjust the behaviour of B30 and the claimed consensus distance between the E. coli promoter consensus sequences, some structural modification in the (TA)21 stretch -either spontaneous or induced by RNA polymerase- can be hypothesized. Unless the (TA)21 stretch itself plays the role of a relatively good promoter, the results suggest that promoter-specific elements may be distributed along the DNA sequences over distances longer, but seldom less, than the 17 +/- 2 bp consensus distance.

Specific and non specific Escherichia coli ribonucleic acid polymerase DNA complexes are not hydrodynamically equivalent in analytical band sedimentation

We have measured the sedimentation coefficients (s) of different DNA molecules of a few thousand base bairs in the presence of increasing amounts of E. coli RNA polymerase under conditions where tight binding complexes are formed. The measured s does not increase linearly with n(n=RNA Polymerase/DNA molar ratio); the s vs n plot can be decomposed into two parts; first the increase in s is small until n reaches a value n0 approximately equal to the number of strong promoters of the DNA molecule under consideration, then when n greater than n0 the slope of s(n) is much higher. The observations are in agreement with a model which postulates that strong specific polymerase binding leads to an increase in frictional coefficient of the RNA Polymerase-DNA complex, while non specific(or less specific)RNAP binding leads to a contraction of the RNA Polymerase-DNA complexes.