Expression of micF involved in porin synthesis in Escherichia coli: two distinct cis-acting elements respectively regulate micF expression positively and negatively.

micF RNA, whose sequence is highly complementary to a 5'-portion of ompF mRNA, has been implicated in the osmoregulation and thermoregulation of the ompF porin gene in Escherichia coli. To define and characterize cis-acting regulatory regions upstream of the micF promoter, a series of deletions of the micF promoter fused to the lacZ gene were constructed. Two distinct regions, which function differently, were identified as cis-acting regulatory elements, namely, one responsible for OmpR-dependent activation and the other for OmpR-independent repression of micF expression. The former contains the OmpR-binding site, which simultaneously regulates both the genes, micF and ompC, in response to the medium osmolarity. The latter may be involved in an unknown regulatory process of micF expression.