A Strong Promoter Provided with the Gene Encoding Arginyl-tRNA Synthetase(argS) from Escherichia coli

Previous studies showed that the gene argS encoding the arginyl-tRNA synthetase(ArgRS) from Escherichia coli(E.coli), was overexpressed 1 000 folds in the E.coli transformant TG1/pUC-argS, while the gene leuS, encoding the leucyl-tRNA synthetase(LeuRS) from E.coli, was only overproduced 35-fold in the same case. To investigate why the expression of these two aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase genes is so different, a fused gene (termed parg-leuS) was constructed by replacement of the 5' flanking region of leuS to 5' flanking region of argS. In the E.coli transformant TG1/pUC-parg-leuS, the activity of LeuRS was only improved 8.5-fold, which was much lower than that of the transformant harboring the recombinant plasmid pUC18-leuS or pKK-leuS. However, by RNA dot hybridization the amount of mRNA produced in the transcription of parg-leuS was about 5 times than that of the wild type leuS, and was similar to that of pKK-leuS, suggesting that the promoter of argS is very strong. Analysis of the secondary structure around the initiation codon among three mRNAs showed that the secondary structure of the mRNA from parg-leuS was the strongest of the three mRNAs. From the results, it could be deduced that expression of the fused gene parg-leuS might be controlled at the translational level and the strong secondary structure of this mRNA may hinder translation initiation and result in a low translation efficiency.