Effects of Mutations in the Regulatory Region on Transcriptional Regulation of glpD Gene

Expression of the adjacent but divergently transcribed glpD and glpE gene is positively regulated by cAMP-CRP. In this study, we constructed several mutants in which a CRP-binding site is placed at different distances upstream of the glpD promoter. The effect of the spacer length on transcription activation by cAMP-CRP was tested in vivo by $\beta$-galactosidase. The cAMP-CRP complex activated transcription from glpD when bound at a number of positions, all of which lay on the same face of the DNA helix, although the degree of activation varied with the length of the spacer. By contrast, the insertion of spacer length with non-integral turns of the DNA helix extremely inhibited the activation of transcription. The observed transcription activation by cAMP of the glpD promoter was influenced by the distance between the CRP binding site and the transcription start point.