Microsatellite instability regulates transcription factor binding and gene expression.

Journal article

Microsatellites are tandemly repeated simple sequence DNA motifs widely prevalent in eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. In pathogenic bacteria, instability of these hypermutable loci through slipped-strand mispairing mediates the high-frequency reversible switching of phenotype expression, i.e., phase variation. Phase-variable expression of NadA, an outer membrane protein and adhesin of the pathogen Neisseria meningitidis, is mediated by changes in the number of TAAA repeats located upstream...

Expand abstract

Authors: Martin, P; Makepeace, K; Hill, SA; Hood, D; Moxon, E

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• Volume: 102
• Issue: 10
• Pages: 3800-3804
• Publication date: 2005-03-01
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0406805102
• EISSN: 1091-6490
• ISSN: 0027-8424
• Language: English
• Keywords: Base Sequence; Transcription Factors; Microsatellite Repeats; Transcription, Genetic; Neisseria meningitidis; Promoter Regions, Genetic; Genomic Instability; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; Molecular Sequence Data; Amino Acid Sequence