Inhibition of Transcription of the Histidine Operon In Vitro by the First Enzyme of the Histidine Pathway

An in vitro system was developed for transcription of the histidine operon of Esherichia coli carried in the genome of a defective varphi80 transducing phage. The messenger RNA (mRNA) of the histidine operon synthesized in the in vitro system was detected by hybridization to single strands of both varphi80 and varphi80dhis DNA, and by competition of this hybridization with unlabeled histidine mRNA that had been synthesized in vivo (RNA extracted from cells in which the histidine operon had been derepressed). Under the conditions used, RNA complementary to the histidine operon was about 15% of the total RNA that was synthesized in vitro from the varphi80dhis DNA template. The RNA complementary to the histidine operon was synthesized on the "sense" strand (the R strand) of varphi80dhis in the form of a polycistronic message with a sedimentation coefficient (about 38 S) very close to that observed for the histidine mRNA synthesized in vivo. Synthesis of the histidine operon RNA appears to be subject to control in vitro. Addition of the first enzyme of the pathway for histidine biosynthesis blocked transcription of the histidine operon specifically, strongly suggesting that this enzyme acts as a regulatory protein for the histidine operon.