Essentiality, not expressiveness, drives gene-strand bias in bacteria

Nat Genet. 2003 Aug;34(4):377-8. doi: 10.1038/ng1209.

Abstract

Preferential positioning of bacterial genes in the leading strand was thought to result from selection to avoid high head-on collision rates between DNA and RNA polymerases. Here we show, however, that in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli, essentiality (the transcript product), not expressiveness (the collision rate), selectively drives the biased gene distribution.

MeSH terms

  • Bacillus subtilis / genetics*
  • Bacillus subtilis / metabolism
  • DNA Replication
  • DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / metabolism
  • DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / metabolism
  • Escherichia coli / genetics*
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism
  • Gene Expression
  • Genes, Bacterial*
  • Transcription, Genetic

Substances

  • DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases
  • DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase