Two divergently transcribed genes, soxR and soxS, control a superoxide response regulon of Escherichia coli.

soxR governs a superoxide response regulon that contains the genes for endonuclease IV, Mn2(+)-superoxide dismutase, and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The soxR gene encodes a 17-kDa protein; some mutations of this gene cause constitutive overexpression of the regulon. Induction by paraquat (methyl viologen) requires both soxR and a new gene, soxS. soxS is adjacent to soxR, it encodes a 13-kDa protein, and it is required for paraquat resistance. These functions were revealed by studies in which the sequence of the 1.1-kb soxR-soxS region was determined, the 5' ends of the mRNAs were mapped, and complementation tests were performed with soxRS plasmids containing deletions of known sequence. The two genes are divergently transcribed, and the transcripts overlap. The soxS promoter is within the 85-nucleotide intergenic region, whereas the soxR promoter is within soxS. soxS mRNA increases after induction. Both protein products have possible DNA-binding (helix-turn-helix) domains. SoxR contains four cysteines (CX2CXCX5C) that might be part of a sensor region. SoxS shows 17 to 31% homology to the C-terminal portions of members of the AraC family of positive regulators.