The Regulation of gene expression in Chlamydia

描述（由申请人提供）：衣原体是发达国家性传播疾病的主要原因，也是发展中国家可预防性失明的主要原因。我们的长期目标是确定调节衣原体基因表达的分子机制，以便我们可以干预生物体的细胞内发育周期。我们的中心假设是衣原体基因表达在转录水平上由主要调控分子（如激活因子和抑制因子）和其他形式的RNA聚合酶协调调节。我们提出三个目标：

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chlamydia is the leading cause of sexually transmitted disease in the developed world, and preventable blindness in the developing world. Our long-term goal is to define the molecular mechanisms that regulate chlamydial gene expression so that we may intervene during the organism's intracellular developmental cycle. Our central hypothesis is that chlamydial gene expression is coordinately regulated at the transcriptional level by master regulatory molecules, such as activators and repressors, and by alternative forms of RNA polymerase. We propose three aims: 1) Investigate the function of a cis-acting DNA element that is important for Chlamydia-specific promoter activity. We will use biochemical and physical approaches to determine if a novel DNA element called the Spacer A/T region exerts its positive effect on transcription by binding an activator. 2) Define the role of HrcA, a transcription factor that regulates the expression of heat shock genes. We will determine how heat shock gene expression is regulated by the physical state of the HrcA repressor, higher temperature, DNA topology, and by the heat shock protein, GroEL. 3) Define the role of sigma28 RNA polymerase, an alternative RNA polymerase. We will use functional, bioinformatics and DNA microarray approaches to identify sigma28 promoters and sigma28-regulated genes.