A common role of CRP in transcription activation: CRP acts transiently to stimulate events leading to open complex formation at a diverse set of promoters

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We have shown previously that the cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP) is not required after the formation of the open complex at the lac promoter (Tagami and Aiba, 1995, Nucleic Acids Res., 19, 6705-6712). In this paper, we investigate the role of CRP in transcription activation at the malT and gal promoters. At the malT promoter, RNA polymerase (RNAP) forms a nonproductive RNAP-promoter binary complex in the absence of CRP and a productive CRP-RNAP-promoter ternary complex in the presence of CRP. CRP can be removed from the malT ternary complex by a moderate concentration of heparin. The resulting binary complex is functionally identical to the ternary complex. At the gal promoter, RNAP predominantly forms a binary complex at the P2 promoter in the absence of CRP and a ternary complex at the P1 promoter in the presence of CRP. A very high concentration of heparin is able to dissociate CRP from the galP1 ternary complex without changing the properties of the complex. These data indicate that CRP is not required for the maintenance of the ternary complex and plays no role in the subsequent steps, irrespective of the promoter. We conclude that the common role of CRP in the activation of transcription is to stimulate events leading to the formation of a productive open complex at a diverse set of CRP-dependent promoters. We suggest that the interaction between CRP and RNAP is needed only transiently for the activation of transcription.