FadR activates the
fabH promoter in the absence of long-chain FA
[8]. Multiple promoters seem to be a common feature of FA synthesis genes
[2].
FadR belongs to the GntR family
[29, 30]. However, Xu et al. (2001) reported that homologies to CAP and the Tet repressor based on structure are more relevant and they have categorized FadR as a chimera of two motifs
[28].
FadR appears to be a two-domain dimeric molecule in which the N-terminal domains
[1, 23, 31, 32] bind to DNA, whereas the C-terminal domain binds the fatty acyl coenzyme A (acyl-CoA)
[28]. In addition, there is a linker that connects both the N-terminal and C-terminal. FadR binds DNA as an apo-protein, and it is released when it binds long-chain acyl-CoA
[33, 34]. The binding of acyl-CoA disrupts a buried network of charged and polar residues in the C-terminal domain, and the resulting conformational change is transmitted to the N-terminal domain via a domain-spanning α-helix CoA
[28]; in this way there is loss of DNA binding
[35], since acyl-CoA regulates DNA binding by FadR
[1, 36].
A single point mutation of W60G in the FadR regulatory protein from
Escherichia coli K113 strain causes loss of its DNA-binding activity and its regulatory roles in lipid metabolism
[37]. A hydrophobic interaction among three amino acids (W60, F74, and W75) is critical for its DNA-binding ability by maintaining the configuration of its neighboring two β-sheets
[37].
The α/β N-terminal domain (α1-β1-α2-α3-β2-β3) has a winged-helix motif, and the α-helical C-terminal domain (α6-α7-α8-α9-α10-α11-α12) resembles the sensor domain of the Tet repressor
[28] and PAS domain, in particular the photoactive yellow protein
[35], and finally the linker comprising two short α-helices (α4-α5)
[28].
The binding of FadR to DNA is determined by the localization of the α3 recognition helices that are paired together at the dimer interface
[28].
The DNA-binding domain is very highly conserved among FadR-containing bacteria, whereas the C-terminal acyl-CoA-binding domain shows only weak conservation
[38].
A FadR-type regulator has been identified in
Vibrio vulnificus [39],
Corynebacterium glutamicum [40],
Salmonella enterica,
Vibrio cholerae,
Pasteurella multocida, and
Hemophilus influenzae [38].
FadR is a homodimer
[28, 32] that recognizes a palindromic sequence, 5'-TGGNNNNNCCA-3'
[28].
Overexpression of FadR improves fatty acid production by 5- to 7.5-fold over that of strains in which it is not overexpressed
[9]. Genes related to the stress response proteins and fatty acid biosynthetic pathways are upregulated by FadR
[9]. An increase of organic solvent tolerances (OSTs) was shown by using the
fadR and
marR double mutant of those two transcriptional regulators
[41].
L-threonine production increases when the
fadR,
fabR, and
iclR regulators are deleted, suggesting that coupling fatty acid degradation and the L-threonine biosynthesis pathway via the glyoxylate shunt could efficiently increase L-threonine production
[42]
Reviews:
[33, 43]