Mechanism for the autogenous control of the crp operon: Transcriptional inhibition by a divergent RNA transcript

Expression of the crp gene is negatively autoregulated by the complex of cyclic AMP and its receptor protein (cAMP-CRP). We find a second promoter in this region that is strongly activated in vitro and in vivo by cAMP-CRP. Transcription from this promoter is initiated 3 nucleotides upstream and on the opposite strand from the start of crp mRNA. The addition of the purified 5' segment of the divergent RNA specifically inhibits crp transcription in vitro. cAMP-CRP does not block crp expression if the new promoter is altered so that divergent RNA cannot be made. The initial nucleotides of the divergent RNA are complementary to 10 of the first 11 nucleotides of the crp mRNA. Since the next 11 nucleotides of crp mRNA are A + U-rich, an RNA hybrid between the divergent RNA and the 5' end of crp mRNA could produce a structure similar to a ρ-independent terminator, leading to inhibition of crp transcription.