A PROMOTER ASSOCIATED WITH THE NEISSERIAL REPEAT CAN BE USED TO TRANSCRIBE THE UVRB GENE FROM NEISSERIA-GONORRHOEAE

A recombinant plasmid capable of restoring UV resistance to an Escherichia coli uvrB mutant was isolated from a genomic library of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Sequence analysis revealed an open reading frame whose deduced amino acid sequence displayed significant similarity to those of the UvrB proteins of E. coli, Micrococcus luteus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. A gonococcal uvrB mutant was constructed and found to be extremely sensitive to UV radiation. Transcriptional fusions between portions of the gonococcal uvrB upstream region and a reporter gene were used to localize promoter activity, and the transcriptional start point of the gonococcal uvrB gene was mapped in E. coli by primer extension. A corresponding sigma(70) promoter was identified within a copy of the 26-bp neisserial repeat, and this identification provided the first evidence of a promoter associated with this repetitive element in N. gonorrhoeae.