Nucleotide sequence of the intercistronic region preceding the gene for RNA polymerase subunit alpha in Escherichia coli.

The gene for RNA polymerase subunit alpha is a co-transcribed with several ribosomal protein genes (Jaskunas, S.R., Burgess, R.R., and Nomura, M. (1975) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 72, 5036-5040). The DNA sequence whicch codes for the COOH-terminal amino acids of S4 and the NH2-terminal amino acids of alpha, and the 25 nucleotide intercistronic sequence have been determined. This short distance supports the idea that some post-transcriptional regulation determines the differential synthesis of alpha and ribosomal proteins.