Transcriptional analysis of bacteriocin production by malt isolate Lactobacillus sakei 5

Malt isolate Lactobacillus sakei 5 produces three bacteriocins, sakacin P, sakacin T and sakacin X. The structural and regulatory genes for sakacin T and sakacin X are part of the sakacin TX locus, which consists of two adjacent, but divergently oriented gene clusters. Primer extension transcriptional analysis pointed to the existence of three distinct promoters within the sakacin TX locus, indicating that the three-component regulatory system in this locus is atypical in the sense that it is divided into a pheromone-specifying operon and an operon containing the genes for the histidine protein kinase and response regulator. Quantitative real-time PCR analyses showed that a transient increase in the expression of these two regulatory operons precedes transcription of the bacteriocin genes and appearance of bacteriocins in the culture medium. The identified promoters of the sakacin TX locus contain putative regulatory sequences (direct repeats) at corresponding positions in front of their -10 regions, which are likely to play a role in gene regulation.