Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Essential Components of Borreliella Borrelia burgdorferi In Vitro Transcription Assays
Published on: July 22, 2022
Drug Repurposing: Tolfenamic Acid Inactivates PrbP, a Transcriptional Accessory Protein in Liberibacter asiaticus
Christopher L Gardner1, Fernando A Pagliai1, Lei Pan1
1Microbiology and Cell Science Department, Genetics Institute & Institute of Food and Agricultural Science, University of Florida Gainesville, FL, USA.
Abstract:
CLIBASIA_01510, PrbP, is a predicted RNA polymerase binding protein in Liberibacter asiaticus. PrbP was found to regulate expression of a small subset of ribosomal genes through interactions with the β-subunit of the RNA polymerase and a short, specific sequence on the promoter region. Molecular screening assays were performed to identify small molecules that interact with PrbP in vitro. Chemical hits were analyzed for therapeutic efficacy against L. asiaticus via an infected leaf assay, where the transcriptional activity of L. asiaticus was found to decrease significantly after exposure to tolfenamic acid. Similarly, tolfenamic acid was found to inhibit L. asiaticus infection in highly symptomatic citrus seedlings. Our results indicate that PrbP is an important transcriptional regulator for survival of L. asiaticus in planta, and the chemicals identified by molecular screening assays could be used as a therapeutic treatment for huanglongbing disease.
Related Concept Videos
Transcription Attenuation in Prokaryotes
There are several different mechanisms used to attenuate transcription. In ribosome mediated...
Prokaryotic Transcriptional Activators and Repressors
Transcription of prokaryotic...
Prokaryotic Transcriptional Activators and Repressors
RNA Polymerase II Accessory Proteins
Eukaryotic Transcription Inhibitors
Eukaryotic transcription inhibitors usually contain two distinct domains, a...
Repressible Operon: trp Operon

