期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:1979
卷号:76
期号:7
页码:3304-3308
DOI:10.1073/pnas.76.7.3304
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要: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.