Effect of the FruR Regulator on Transcription of the pts Operon in Escherichia coli(*)

The promoters of the pts operon of Escherichia coli are controlled by the cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP) complexed with cAMP (CRP•cAMP). In addition, glucose stimulates pts operon expression in vivo. The pts promoter region has a fructose repressor (FruR)-binding site (the FruR box) that partially overlaps with one of the CRP•cAMP-binding sites. The effects of the pleiotropic transcriptional regulator FruR on pts operon expression were studied to determine whether the in vivo glucose effect on pts operon expression is mediated by FruR. In vitro, FruR can repress P1b transcription, which is activated by CRP•cAMP, and restore P1a transcription, which is repressed by CRP•cAMP. FruR can displace CRP•cAMP from its binding site in the presence of RNA polymerase even though FruR and CRP•cAMP can bind simultaneously to their partially overlapping binding sites in the absence of RNA polymerase. FruR had very little effect on the transcription of the P0 promoter, which is most important for regulation by glucose. Consistent with the in vitro results, pts P0 transcription did not increase as much in cells grown in the presence of fructose or in fruR mutant cells as in cells grown in the presence of glucose. These results suggest that FruR alone does not mediate the in vivo glucose effect on pts operon expression.