SummaryUnlike many pathogens that are overtly harmful to their hosts, Mycobacterium tuberculosis can persist for years within humans in a clinically latent state. Latency is often linked to hypoxic conditions within the host. Among M. tuberculosis genes induced by hypoxia is a putative transcription factor, Rv3133c/ DosR. We performed targeted disruption of this locus followed by transcriptome analysis of wild-type and mutant bacilli. Nearly all the genes powerfully regulated by hypoxia require Rv3133c/DosR for their induction. Computer analysis identified a consensus motif, a variant of which is located upstream of nearly all M. tuberculosis genes rapidly induced by hypoxia. Further, Rv3133c/DosR binds to the two copies of this motif upstream of the hypoxic response gene alphacrystallin. Mutations within the binding sites abolish both Rv3133c/DosR binding as well as hypoxic induction of a downstream reporter gene. Also, mutation experiments with Rv3133c/DosR confirmed sequence-based predictions that the C-terminus is responsible for DNA binding and that the aspartate at position 54 is essential for function. Together, these results demonstrate that Rv3133c/DosR is a transcription factor of the two-component response regulator class, and that it is the primary mediator of a hypoxic signal within M. tuberculosis .

Cytotoxic and antimutagenic effects of a novel cis-epsilon-viniferin and five known stilbenes, transresveratrol, trans-epsilon-viniferin, gnetin H, suffruticosols A and B, isolated from the seeds of Paeonia lactiflora Pall. (Paeoniaceae) were determined against five different cancer cell lines, and mutagenicity of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) in Salmonella typhimurium TA100, respectively. Six stilbenes showed cytotoxic activity in a dose-dependent manner, and especially did potent cytotoxic activity against C6 (mouse glioma) cancer cell with IC50 values ranging from 8.2 to 20.5 microg/ml. trans-Resveratrol showed significant cytotoxic activity against HepG2 (liver hepatoma) and HT-29 (colon) human cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 11.8 and 25.2 g/ml, respectively. In contrast, trans-epsilon-viniferin and cis--viniferin, and gnetin H exhibited marked cytotoxic activity against Hela (cervicse) and MCF-7 (breast) human cancer cell lines with IC50 values of 20.4, 21.5, and 12.9 microg/ml, respectively. However, suffruticosol A and B had less cytotoxic effect against all cancer cells except C6. Meanwhile, six stilbenes exerted antimutagenic activity in a dose-dependent fashion. Of them, trans-resveratrol exhibited the strongest antimutagenic effect against MNNG with IC50 value of 27.0 microg/plate, while other five resveratrol oligomers also did moderate antimutagenic activity with IC50 values ranging from 31.7 to 35.2 microg/plate.

Seven stilbenes, a new cis-epsilon-viniferin and the six known stilbenes, trans-resveratrol, trans-resveratrol-4'-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside, trans-epsilon-viniferin, gnetin H, and suffruticosol A and B, were isolated and identified from seeds of Paeonia lactiflora. The antioxidative activity of these stilbene derivatives was evaluated against the 2-deoxyribose degradation and rat liver microsomal lipid peroxidation induced by the hydroxyl radical generated via a Fenton-type reaction. Among these stilbenes, trans-epsilon-viniferin and gnetin H significantly inhibited 2-deoxyribose degradation and lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes. In addition, cis-epsilon-viniferin, and suffruticosol A and B also exhibited moderate antioxidative activity. These results suggest that resveratrol dimers and trimers, together with resveratrol from seeds of Paeonia lactiflora may be useful as potential sources of natural antioxidants.

Dal82p binds to the UIS ALL sites of allophanate-induced genes of the allantoin-degradative pathway and functions synergistically with the GATA family Gln3p and Gat1p transcriptional activators that are responsible for nitrogen catabolite repression-sensitive gene expression. CAR2, which encodes the arginine-degradative enzyme ornithine transaminase, is not nitrogen catabolite repression sensitive, but its expression can be modestly induced by the allantoin pathway inducer. The dominant activators ofCAR2 transcription have been thought to be the ArgR and Mcm1 factors, which mediate arginine-dependent induction. These observations prompted us to investigate the structure of theCAR2 promoter with the objectives of determining whether other transcription factors were required for CAR2expression and, if so, of ascertaining their relative contributions toCAR2’s expression and control. We show that Rap1p binds upstream of CAR2 and plays a central role in its induced expression irrespective of whether the inducer is arginine or the allantoin pathway inducer analogue oxalurate (OXLU). Our data also explain the early report that ornithine transaminase production is induced when cells are grown with urea. OXLU induction derives from the Dal82p binding site, which is immediately downstream of the Rap1p site, and Dal82p functions synergistically with Rap1p. This synergism is unlike all other known instances of Dal82p synergism, namely, that with the GATA family transcription activators Gln3p and Gat1p, which occurs only in the presence of an inducer. The observations reported suggest that CAR2 gene expression results from strong constitutive transcriptional activation mediated by Rap1p and Dal82p being balanced by the down regulation of an equally strong transcriptional repressor, Ume6p. This balance is then tipped in the direction of expression by the presence of the inducer. The formal structure of theCAR2 promoter and its operation closely follow the model proposed for CAR1.