Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Applying an Inducible Expression System to Study Interference of Bacterial Virulence Factors with Intracellular Signaling
Published on: June 25, 2015
Three tuf-like genes in the kirromycin producer Streptomyces ramocissimus
E Vijgenboom1, L P Woudt, P W Heinstra
1Department of Biochemistry, Leiden University, Gorlaeus Laboratories, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
We have identified, cloned and sequenced three tuf-like genes from Streptomyces ramocissimus (Sr.), the producer of the antibiotic kirromycin which inhibits protein synthesis by binding the polypeptide chain elongation factor EF-Tu. The tuf-1 gene encodes a protein with 71% amino acid residues identical to the well characterized elongation factor Tu of Escherichia coli (Ec.EF-Tu). The genetic location of tuf-1 downstream of a fus homologue and the in vitro activity of Sr.EF-Tu1 show that tuf-1 encodes a genuine EF-Tu. The putative Sr.EF-Tu2 and Sr.EF-Tu3 proteins are 69% and 63% identical to Ec.EF-Tu. Homologues of tuf-1 and tuf-3 were detected in all five Streptomyces strains investigated, but tuf-2 was found in S. ramocissimus only. The three tuf genes were expressed in E. coli and used to produce polyclonal antibodies. Western blot analysis showed that Sr.EF-Tu1 was present at all times under kirromycin production conditions in submerged and surface-grown cultures of S. ramocissimus and in germinating spores. The expression of tuf-2 and tuf-3 was, however, below the detection level. Surprisingly, Sr.EF-Tu1 was kirromycin sensitive, which excludes the possibility that EF-Tu is involved in the kirromycin resistance of S. ramocissimus.
Related Concept Videos
Prokaryotic Transcriptional Activators and Repressors
Transcription of prokaryotic...
Transcription Attenuation in Prokaryotes
There are several different mechanisms used to attenuate transcription. In ribosome mediated...
Transgenic Plants
The first-ever transgenic plant was a tobacco plant developed in 1983 that showed resistance against the tobacco mosaic virus. Since then, many transgenic plants have been developed and commercialized for improving the agricultural, ornamental, and horticultural value of a crop plant. Transgenic...
Repressible Operon: trp Operon
Production of Pharmaceuticals

