Expression of positional information during cell differentiation of Caulobacter

The asymmetric targeting of proteins to the Caulobacter predivisional cell poles yields dissimilar progeny. We show that the products of transcriptional reporter gene fusions to a flagellin gene and to the flagellar hook operon are segregated to the progeny swarmer cell. This segregation does not depend on sequences within the mRNA, but on the upstream regulatory region. The subset of developmentally regulated flagellar genes that exhibit mRNA segregation has the same upstream cis-acting elements: an activator-binding site known as the ftr sequence and an IHF-binding site. We propose that these genes are preferentially transcribed from the chromosome in the incipient swarmer cell pole of the predivisional cell.