Synergistic transcriptional activation by one regulatory protein in response to two metabolites

BenM is a LysR-type bacterial transcriptional regulator that controls aromatic compound degradation in Acinetobacter sp. ADP1. Here, in vitro transcription assays demonstrated that two metabolites of aromatic compound catabolism, benzoate and cis,cis-muconate, act synergistically to activate gene expression. The level of BenM-regulated benA transcription was significantly higher in response to both compounds than the combined levels due to each alone. These compounds also were more effective together than they were individually in altering the DNase I footprint patterns of BenM-DNA complexes. This type of dual-inducer synergy provides great potential for rapid and large modulations of gene expression and may represent an important, and possibly widespread, feature of transcriptional control.