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. 2018 Jan 22;8(1):1313.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-19495-8.

Core promoter information content correlates with optimal growth temperature

Ariel A Aptekmann  1   2 , Alejandro D Nadra  3   4   5
Affiliations

Core promoter information content correlates with optimal growth temperature

Ariel A Aptekmann et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The subtle mechanisms by which protein-DNA interactions remain functional across a wide range of temperatures are largely unknown. In this work, we manually curated available information relating fully sequenced archaeal genomes with organism growth temperatures. We built a motif that represents the core promoter of each species and calculated its information content. We then studied the relation between optimal growth temperature (OGT) and information content (IC) in the promoter region.We found a positive correlation between G + C content and OGT in tRNA regions and not in overall genome. Furthermore, we found that there is a positive correlation between information content and optimal growth temperatures in Archaea. This can't be explained by an increased C+G composition nor by other obvious mechanisms. These findings suggest that increased information content could produce a positive fitness in organisms living at high temperatures. We suggest that molecular information theory may need to be adapted for hyperthermophiles.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
G + C content for tRNA coding and promoter regions. G + C content was analyzed either in the region coding for the tRNA itself (empty circles) or in a promoter region of the same length for each of the genomes in our dataset (filled circles). Coding regions show a clear increase with temperature (R = 0.91 p = 4.9 × 10−30), while promoters region do not (R = −0.3 p = 7 × 10−3).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Best and worst TATA’s logos. Lowest (top) and highest (bottom) e-score motif of the TBP binding site (TBS) for 39 archaeal genomes. TBS are represented as sequence logos. 100 bp upstream regions of tRNAs were collected for each genome and were analyzed by MEME to identify TBS. For a full list of obtained logos refer to Figure S12.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Information content correlates with optimal growth temperature. Information content of the predicted TBS motif on 100bp window, for 39 archaeal genomes is plotted against optimal growth temperature. Each dot represents one species average. Numbering for each dot refers to the species/motifs in Table 1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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