Functional dissection of the molybdate-responsive transcription regulator, ModE, from Escherichia coli

The product of the Escherichia coli modE gene, ModE, is a member of a unique class of molybdate-responsive DNA binding proteins. Here we investigated the roles of the N- and C-terminal domains of ModE in mediating DNA binding and protein dimerization, respectively. Compared to the full-length protein, the N-terminal half of ModE has a greatly diminished capacity to bind the modA promoter in vitro and to repress expression from a modA-lacZ operon fusion in vivo. Fusing a protein dimerization domain, encoded by the C terminus of lambda CI repressor protein, to the truncated ModE protein generated a ModE-CI fusion protein that not only displayed a greatly increased in vivo repressor activity but could also substitute for ModE at the moaA and dmsA promoters. In the reciprocal experiment, we restored repressor activity to a truncated CI protein by addition of the C-terminal domain of ModE, which is comprised of two MopI-like subdomains. By an in vivo competition assay, we also demonstrated that the CI-ModE chimeric protein retained the ability to interact with wild-type ModE. Finally, specific deletions within the ModE portion of the CI-ModE protein chimera abolished both in vivo repression and the ability to interact with wild-type ModE. Together, these data demonstrate that the N-terminal domain of ModE is sufficient to mediate DNA binding, although efficient binding requires that ModE form a dimer, a function that is supplied by the C-terminal MopI-like subdomains.