Project description:Purpose: The Haloferax volcanii ∆tfeB strain provided a unique opportunity to study a putative role of TFEβ in the regulation of gene expression. Results: The deletion of the tfeB gene in H. volcanii results in the aberrant expression of approximately one third of all genes, consistent with its function as a basal transcription initiation factor. Interestingly, tfeB deletion particularly affects foreign genes including a prophage region. Conclusions: Our results confirm the dual function of TFE as basal factor and regulator of transcription
Project description:Identification of global gene expression profiling when Haloferax volcanii H26 strain is grown in minimal medium supplemented with two nitrogen sources, 10 mM L-alanine and 10 mM ammonium chloride.
Project description:The hypersaline-adapted archaeon Haloferax volcanii exhibits remarkable plasticity in its morphology, biofilm formation, and motility in response to variations in nutrients and cell density. The transcriptional regulator TrmB maintains the rod shape in the related species Halobacterium salinarum by activating the expression genes involved in gluconeogenesis. Here we investigated the role of TrmB in Hfx. volcanii. The ∆trmB strain rapidly accumulated suppressor mutations in a gene encoding a novel transcriptional regulator, which we name TrmB suppressor, or TbsP. TbsP is required for adhesion to abiotic surfaces and maintains wild-type cell morphology and motility. We identified TbsP binding sites in the presence and absence of glucose to better understand the role of TbsP. TbsP does not bind DNA in response to glucose availability. The sole binding site near a metabolic enzyme-coding gene is upstream of gapII.