Translational independence between overlapping genes for a restriction endonuclease and its transcriptional regulator

Background: Most type II restriction-modification (RM) systems have two independent enzymes that act on the same DNA sequence: a modification methyltransferase that protects target sites, and a restriction endonuclease that cleaves unmethylated target sites. When RM genes enter a new cell, methylation must occur before restriction activity appears, or the host's chromosome is digested. Transcriptional mechanisms that delay endonuclease expression have been identified in some RM systems. A substantial subset of those systems is controlled by a family of small transcription activators called C proteins. In the PvuII system, C. PvuII activates transcription of its own gene, along with that of the downstream endonuclease gene. This regulation results in very low R. PvuII mRNA levels early after gene entry, followed by rapid increase due to positive feedback. However, given the lethal consequences of premature REase accumulation, transcriptional control alone might be insufficient. In C-controlled RM systems, there is a +/- 20 nt overlap between the C termination codon and the R (endonuclease) initiation codon, suggesting possible translational coupling, and in many cases predicted RNA hairpins could occlude the ribosome binding site for the endonuclease gene. Results: Expression levels of lacZ translational fusions to pvuIIR or pvuIIC were determined, with the native pvuII promoter having been replaced by one not controlled by C. PvuII. In-frame pvuIIC insertions did not substantially decrease either pvuIIC-lacZ or pvuIIR-lacZ expression (with or without C. PvuII provided in trans). In contrast, a frameshift mutation in pvuIIC decreased expression markedly in both fusions, but mRNA measurements indicated that this decrease could be explained by transcriptional polarity. Expression of pvuIIR-lacZ was unaffected when the pvuIIC stop codon was moved 21 nt downstream from its WT location, or 25 or 40 bp upstream of the pvuIIR initiation codon. Disrupting the putative hairpins had no significant effects. Conclusions: The initiation of translation of pvuIIR appears to be independent of that for pvuIIC. Direct tests failed to detect regulatory rules for either gene overlap or the putative hairpins. Thus, at least during balanced growth, transcriptional control appears to be sufficiently robust for proper regulation of this RM system.