ArticleBMC microbiology2010
Genes regulated by the Escherichia coli SOS repressor LexA exhibit heterogeneous expression.
Article in BMC microbiology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
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47 citing papers in PubMed, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Directed evolution of bacteriophages: thwarted by prolific prophage.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Directed evolution of bacteriophages: impacts of prolific prophage.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Estimating mutation rates under heterogeneous stress responses.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- A Machine Learning Approach to Simulate Gene Expression and Infer Gene Regulatory Networks.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Mechanisms underlying interactions between two abundant oral commensal bacteria.The ISME journal · 2022Article
- Regulation of Heterogenous LexA Expression inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Colicin E2 expression in Escherichia coli biofilms: Induction and regulation revisited.Current research in microbial sciences · 2022Article
- Cellular heterogeneity in DNA alkylation repair increases population genetic plasticity.Nucleic acids research · 2021Article
- Relatedness and the evolution of mechanisms to divide labor in microorganisms.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Single-molecule imaging of LexA degradation in Escherichia coli elucidates regulatory mechanisms and heterogeneity of the SOS response.Nature microbiology · 2021Article
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- Waddington's Landscapes in the Bacterial World.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Review
- Unfolding SARS-CoV-2 viral genome to understand its gene expression regulation.Infection, genetics and evolution : journal of molecular epidemiology and evolutionary genetics in infectious diseases · 2020Article
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- The Evolution of Mass Cell Suicide in Bacterial Warfare.Current biology : CB · 2020Article
- Degeneration of industrial bacteria caused by genetic instability.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2020Review
- Genetically similar temperate phages form coalitions with their shared host that lead to niche-specific fitness effects.The ISME journal · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPhenotypic heterogeneity may ensure that a small fraction of a population survives environmental perturbations or may result in lysis in a subpopulation, to increase the survival of siblings. Genes involved in DNA repair and population dynamics play key roles in rapid responses to environmental conditions. In Escherichia coli the transcriptional repressor LexA controls a coordinated cellular response to DNA damage designated the SOS response. Expression of LexA regulated genes, e.g. colicin encoding genes, recA, lexA and umuDC, was examined utilizing transcription fusions with the promoterless gfp at the single cell level.
resultsThe investigated LexA regulated genes exhibited heterogeneity, as only in a small fraction of the population more intense fluorescence was observed. Unlike recA and lexA, the pore forming and nuclease colicin activity genes as well as umuDC, exhibited no basal level activity. However, in a lexA defective strain high level expression of the gene fusions was observed in the large majority of the cells. All of the investigated genes were expressed in a recA defective strain, albeit at lower levels, revealing expression in the absence of a spontaneous SOS response. In addition, the simultaneous expression of cka, encoding the pore forming colicin K, and lexA, investigated at the single cell level revealed high level expression of only cka in rare individual cells.
conclusionLexA regulated genes exhibit phenotypic heterogeneity as high level expression is observed in only a small subpopulation of cells. Heterogeneous expression is established primarily by stochastic factors and the binding affinity of LexA to SOS boxes.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.