Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026

A Fast and Reliable Pipeline for Bacterial Transcriptome Analysis Case study: Serine-dependent Gene Regulation in Streptococcus pneumoniae
Published on: April 25, 2015
Predicting gene expression levels from codon biases in alpha-proteobacterial genomes
Samuel Karlin1, Melanie J Barnett, Allan M Campbell
1Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. karlin@math.stanford.edu
Abstract:
Predicted highly expressed (PHX) genes in five currently available high G+C complete alpha-proteobacterial genomes are analyzed. These include: the nitrogen-fixing plant symbionts Sinorhizobium meliloti (SINME) and Mesorhizobium loti (MESLO), the nonpathogenic aquatic bacterium Caulobacter crescentus (CAUCR), the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens (AGRTU), and the mammalian pathogen Brucella melitensis (BRUME). Three of these genomes, SINME, AGRTU, and BRUME, contain multiple chromosomes or megaplasmids (>1 Mb length). PHX genes in these genomes are concentrated mainly in the major (largest) chromosome with few PHX genes found in the secondary chromosomes and megaplasmids. Tricarboxylic acid cycle and aerobic respiration genes are strongly PHX in all five genomes, whereas anaerobic pathways of glycolysis and fermentation are mostly not PHX. Only in MESLO (but not SINME) and BRUME are most glycolysis genes PHX. Many flagellar genes are PHX in MESLO and CAUCR, but mostly are not PHX in SINME and AGRTU. The nonmotile BRUME also carries many flagellar genes but these are generally not PHX and all but one are located in the second chromosome. CAUCR stands out among available prokaryotic genomes with 25 PHX TonB-dependent receptors. These are putatively involved in uptake of iron ions and other nonsoluble compounds.
Related Concept Videos
Prokaryotic Transcriptional Activators and Repressors
Transcription of prokaryotic...
Leaky Scanning
Ribosome Profiling
Applications of ribosome profiling
Ribosome profiling has many applications, including in vivo monitoring of translation inside a particular organ or tissue type and quantifying new protein synthesis levels.
The technique helps...
Prokaryotic Transcriptional Activators and Repressors
Transcription of prokaryotic...
Prokaryotic Gene Structure and Organization
Coordination of Gene Expression Processes in Bacteria

