Post-transcriptional regulation of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa algC gene

The algC gene (encoding phosphomannomutase) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, similarly to the algD gene, is environmentally regulated through transcriptional activation of its promoter. This gene, like algD, has a long (244 bp) 5' untranslated leader region (5' UTR). Using transcriptional and translational algC::lacZ fusions, we show that even though the transcript levels are similar, the beta-galactosidase-specific activities of the translational fusions are much higher than those of the transcriptional fusions during the entire growth phase. Both the 5' UTR and the ribosomal-binding site are shown to be important for efficient translation of the algC mRNA.