Transcriptional silencing in bacteria
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Updated: Oct 17, 2026

Phage-mediated Delivery of Targeted sRNA Constructs to Knock Down Gene Expression in E. coli
Published on: March 20, 2016
1Laboratory of Biochemistry, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-4255, USA. myarmo@helix.nih. gov
Abstract:
Transcriptional silencing and repression are modes of negative control of gene expression that differ in specificity. Repressors, when present at promoter-specific binding sites, interfere locally with RNA polymerase function. Silencing proteins act by covering a continuous region of DNA, compete with a broader spectrum of proteins and are non-specific with respect to the promoters affected. Studies of transcriptional silencing promise an entrée to relatively unexplored areas of prokaryotic biology.
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