dRNA-Seq analysis reveals a fascinating transcriptional architecture in<em> Clostridium autoethanogenum</em> — ASN Events

dRNA-Seq analysis reveals a fascinating transcriptional architecture in Clostridium autoethanogenum (#292)

Renato Lemgruber 1 , Robin W. Palfreyman 1 , Kaspar Valgepea 1 , James Behrendorff 2 , Michael Koepke 2 , Lars K. Nielsen 1 , Esteban Marcellin 1
  1. Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) , The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD
  2. LanzaTech Inc, Skokie, IL, USA

Clostridium autoethanogenum is a gram-positive bacterium capable of growth on CO and/or CO2+H2 (syngas) as sole carbon source1. The bacterium ferments syngas into acetyl-CoA using the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway2. C. autoethanogenum can also grow on fructose using the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas glycolytic pathway3. Such contrasting metabolisms are ideal to compare transcriptional control of both metabolisms and here we used differential RNA sequencing (dRNA-seq) to generate the first map of transcriptional start sites (TSS) for a gas-fermenting organism. This map revealed a number of misannotations and 140 genes were re-annotated. As in other organisms, most TSSs were found within a 20-50 nucleotide region upstream of annotated genes. The main promoter motif was associated with the sigma factor σ70 family, whereas most of the TSSs for the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway genes were found to be under the regulation of a new promoter motif, described here for the first time. Internal, antisense and orphan TSSs mapping reveal a high level of transcriptional complexity and suggest that the regulation that was thought to be relatively simple, is far more complex and far from being fully understood.

  1. Abrini J, Naveau, H, Nyns E-J. (1994) Arch Microbiol. 161, 345-351
  2. Bengelsdorf FR, Straub M, Durre P. (2013) Environ Tech. 34(13-14), 1639-1651
  3. Drake HL, Gobner AS, Daniel SL (2008) Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1125, 100-128
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