The Escherichia coli copper-responsive copA promoter is activated by gold

The copA gene of Escherichia coli encodes a copper transporter and its promoter is normally regulated by Cu(I) ions and CueR, a MerR-like transcriptional activator. We show that CueR can also be activated by gold salts and that Cys(112) and Cys(120) are involved in recognition of gold, silver, and c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of biological chemistry Vol. 278; no. 3; pp. 1407 - 1410
Main Authors Stoyanov, Jivko V, Brown, Nigel L
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 17.01.2003
Subjects
Amino Acid Sequence
Bacterial Proteins - chemistry
Bacterial Proteins - genetics
Bacterial Proteins - metabolism
Chelating Agents - metabolism
Copper - metabolism
Copper - pharmacology
Escherichia coli - metabolism
Gold - pharmacology
Molecular Sequence Data
Mutagenesis
Promoter Regions, Genetic
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Silver - pharmacology
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Summary:The copA gene of Escherichia coli encodes a copper transporter and its promoter is normally regulated by Cu(I) ions and CueR, a MerR-like transcriptional activator. We show that CueR can also be activated by gold salts and that Cys(112) and Cys(120) are involved in recognition of gold, silver, and copper salts. Gold activation is unaffected by copper chelating agents but is affected by general metal chelators. This is the first example of specific regulation of transcription by gold, and we briefly speculate that the biological effects of gold antiarthritic drugs may be through their effects on copper management in eukaryotic systems.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:0021-9258
DOI:10.1074/jbc.C200580200