Structure and function of the intercistronic regulatory deoC-deoA element of Escherichia coli K-12

The deoC-deoA intercistronic region from Escherichia coli has been characterized by DNA and protein sequencing. This region consists of 129 bp and includes a regulatory element, which has also been found in other operons containing large intercistronic regions. Our results suggest that the regulatory element functions as a transcriptional attenuator, and therefore it seems likely that the primary role of this element is to effect differential expression of operon genes. Furthermore, we have unambiguously shown that the initiation codon for the deoA gene is UUG.