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Nucleic Acids Research 2006 34(2):606-612; doi:10.1093/nar/gkj453
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Published online 23 January 2006

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions{at}oxfordjournals.org

Article

Induction of the lac promoter in the absence of DNA loops and the stoichiometry of induction

Stefan Oehler*, Siegfried Alberti1 and Benno Müller-Hill2

IMBB-FoRTH PO Box 1385 GR-71110 Heraklion, Crete, Greece 1Department of Molecular Biology, Institute for Cell Biology, Tübingen University Auf der Morgenstelle 15, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany 2Institut für Genetik, Universität zu Köln Zülpicher Strasse 47, D-50674 Köln, Germany

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +30 2810 391144; Fax: +30 2810 391104; Email: oehler{at}imbb.forth.gr

Received October 22, 2005. Revised November 11, 2005. Accepted January 4, 2006.

In vivo induction of the Escherichia coli lactose operon as a function of inducer concentration generates a sigmoidal curve, indicating a non-linear response. Suggested explanations for this dependence include a 2:1 inducer–repressor stoichiometry of induction, which is the currently accepted view. It is, however, known for decades that, in vitro, operator binding as a function of inducer concentration is not sigmoidal. This discrepancy between in vivo and in vitro data has so far not been resolved. We demonstrate that the in vivo non-linearity of induction is due to cooperative repression of the wild-type lac operon through DNA loop formation. In the absence of DNA loops, in vivo induction curves are hyperbolic. In the light of this result, we re-address the question of functional molecular inducer–repressor stoichiometry in induction of the lac operon.


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