Part:BBa_K3507004

Constitutive promoter of B. subtilis

The pta promoter of Bacillus subtilis is the region that initiates the transcription of the phosphotransacetylase coding gene. A study by Presecan-Siedel and colleagues from 1999 characterised in detail the pta gene and its promoter from the wild type strain of B. subtilis 168. Fig. 1 taken from this study, illustrates the topology of this promoter as well as the beginning region of the pta gene. Here, they highlighted the putative -10 and -35 regions important for RNA-polymerase binding. For testing the effect of these regions, the up mentioned group deleted the -10 region of the promoter and fused the remaining part to a reporter gene (lacZ). Afterwards, they integrated this fusion at the amyE gene locus of B. subtilis and observed a lower expression level of this genes compared to the expression level when both regions are present. Thus, the promoter is described as a σA –dependent promoter promoter. Another important characteristic for this promoter is the presence of a CRE sequence located between positions -62 and -49 that is responsible for catabolite-activation of this gene.