Transcription of a cis-acting, Noncoding, Small RNA Is Required for Pilin Antigenic Variation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae (original) (raw)
Figure 5
A working model of the initiation of pilin Av in N. gonorrhoeae.
Shown is the pilin expression locus (pilE) and the upstream region containing the pilE G4-associated sRNA promoter. We propose that the initiation of pilin Av begins with transcription of the pilE G4-associated sRNA promoter (i). During transcription, a RNA∶DNA hybrid is made on the C-rich strand of the pilE G4 sequence (ii) facilitating the formation of a G4 structure by the unpaired G-rich strand, which may be mediated by structure specific binding proteins (iii).