Sxy 5' UTR element

The Sxy 5' UTR element is an RNA element that controls expression of the sxy gene in "H. influenzae". The sxy gene is a transcription factor (also known as TfoX) that regulates competence which is the ability of bacteria to take up DNA from their environment.cite journal |author=Redfield RJ |title=sxy-1, a Haemophilus influenzae mutation causing greatly enhanced spontaneous competence |journal=J. Bacteriol. |volume=173 |issue=18 |pages=5612–8 |year=1991 |month=September |pmid=1653215 |pmc=208288 |doi= |url=http://jb.asm.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=1653215] When the sxy gene is deleted the bacterium loses the ability to express genes in the competence regulon. Cameron "et al". recently showed that mutations in the 5' end of the sxy gene lead to hypercompetance.cite journal |author=Cameron AD, Volar M, Bannister LA, Redfield RJ |title=RNA secondary structure regulates the translation of sxy and competence development in Haemophilus influenzae |journal=Nucleic Acids Res. |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=10–20 |year=2008 |month=January |pmid=17981840 |pmc=2248739 |doi=10.1093/nar/gkm915 |url=] They showed that this region formed an RNA secondary structure that occludes the shine-dalgarno sequence. Mutations that interfere with the stability of this secondary structure lead to increased translation of sxy followed by upregulation of the competence regulon.

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