ArticleGenes & development2015
The bacterial cell cycle regulator GcrA is a σ70 cofactor that drives gene expression from a subset of methylated promoters.
Article in Genes & development, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Type IV pilin regulation: a transcriptional overview.Critical reviews in microbiology · 2026Review
- Variability in intrinsic promoter strength underlies the temporal hierarchy of the Caulobacter SOS response induction.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- DNA methylation by CcrM contributes to genome maintenance in the Agrobacterium tumefaciens plant pathogen.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Upstream CtrA-binding sites both induce and repress pilin gene expression in Caulobacter crescentus.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Influence of the Heme Nitric Oxide/Oxygen Binding Protein (H-NOX) on Cell Cycle Regulation in Caulobacter crescentus.Molecular & cellular proteomics : MCP · 2023Article
- The heat shock protein LarA activates the Lon protease in response to proteotoxic stress.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Methylome evolution suggests lineage-dependent selection in the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori.Communications biology · 2023Article
- An SI3-σ arch stabilizes cyanobacteria transcription initiation complex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- The structural mechanism for transcription activation by Caulobacter crescentus GcrA.Nucleic acids research · 2023Article
- Synchronized Swarmers and Sticky Stalks: Caulobacter crescentus as a Model for Bacterial Cell Biology.Journal of bacteriology · 2023Review
- Shared properties of gene transfer agent and core genes revealed by comparative genomics of Alphaproteobacteria.Microbial genomics · 2022Article
- Comparative genomic analysis of five freshwater cyanophages and reference-guided metagenomic data mining.Microbiome · 2022Article
- DNA Methylation inmSystems · 2022Article
- The noncoding RNA CcnA modulates the master cell cycle regulators CtrA and GcrA in Caulobacter crescentus.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- The transcriptional regulator CtrA controls gene expression in Alphaproteobacteria phages: Evidence for a lytic deferment pathway.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Modeling the temporal dynamics of master regulators and CtrA proteolysis in Caulobacter crescentus cell cycle.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Activation of a signaling pathway by the physical translocation of a chromosome.Developmental cell · 2021Article
- Article
- Transcriptional rewiring of the GcrA/CcrM bacterial epigenetic regulatory system in closely related bacteria.PLoS genetics · 2021Article
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3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
Cell cycle progression in most organisms requires tightly regulated programs of gene expression. The transcription factors involved typically stimulate gene expression by binding specific DNA sequences in promoters and recruiting RNA polymerase. Here, we found that the essential cell cycle regulator GcrA in Caulobacter crescentus activates the transcription of target genes in a fundamentally different manner. GcrA forms a stable complex with RNA polymerase and localizes to almost all active σ(70)-dependent promoters in vivo but activates transcription primarily at promoters harboring certain DNA methylation sites. Whereas most transcription factors that contact σ(70) interact with domain 4, GcrA interfaces with domain 2, the region that binds the -10 element during strand separation. Using kinetic analyses and a reconstituted in vitro transcription assay, we demonstrated that GcrA can stabilize RNA polymerase binding and directly stimulate open complex formation to activate transcription. Guided by these studies, we identified a regulon of ∼ 200 genes, providing new insight into the essential functions of GcrA. Collectively, our work reveals a new mechanism for transcriptional regulation, and we discuss the potential benefits of activating transcription by promoting RNA polymerase isomerization rather than recruitment exclusively.
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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.