SpeF is a putative cis-acting element identified in several gram negative alpha proteobacteria. Its is proposed to be involved in regulating expression of genes

Gênes

Gênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy, named after the city of Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa, and it was divided in the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...

 involved in polyamide

Polyamide

A polyamide is a polymer containing monomers of amides joined by peptide bonds. They can occur both naturally and artificially, examples being proteins, such as wool and silk, and can be made artificially through step-growth polymerization or solid-phase synthesis, examples being nylons, aramids,...

 biosynthesis

Biosynthesis

Biosynthesis is an enzyme-catalyzed process in cells of living organisms by which substrates are converted to more complex products. The biosynthesis process often consists of several enzymatic steps in which the product of one step is used as substrate in the following step...

.

SpeF is one of five putative regulatory elements identified by a computational screen of Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the causal agent of crown gall disease in over 140 species of dicot. It is a rod shaped, Gram negative soil bacterium...

and other alpha-proteobacterial genomes for conserved sequence motifs in operon

Operon

In genetics, an operon is a functioning unit of genomic DNA containing a cluster of genes under the control of a single regulatory signal or promoter. The genes are transcribed together into an mRNA strand and either translated together in the cytoplasm, or undergo trans-splicing to create...

 leaders. In the majority of species analysed it is located in the leader of an operon containing the speF gene an ornithine decarboxylase

Ornithine decarboxylase

The enzyme ornithine decarboxylase catalyzes the decarboxylation of ornithine to form putrescine. This reaction is the committed step in polyamine synthesis. In humans, this protein has 461 amino acids and forms a homodimer....

 enzyme that catalyses one of the first steps in polyamine biosynthesis. However, the authors did not detect binding of metabolites related to this pathway (L-ornithine

Ornithine

Ornithine is an amino acid that plays a role in the urea cycle.-Role in urea cycle:L-Ornithine is one of the products of the action of the enzyme arginase on L-arginine, creating urea. Therefore, ornithine is a central part of the urea cycle, which allows for the disposal of excess nitrogen....

, L-lysine

Lysine

Lysine is an α-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCH4NH2. It is an essential amino acid, which means that the human body cannot synthesize it. Its codons are AAA and AAG....

, meso-diaminopimelate, putrescine

Putrescine

Putrescine is a foul-smelling organic chemical compound NH24NH2 that is related to cadaverine; both are produced by the breakdown of amino acids in living and dead organisms and both are toxic in large doses...

, cadaverine

Cadaverine

Cadaverine is a foul-smelling compound produced by protein hydrolysis during putrefaction of animal tissue. Cadaverine is a toxic diamine with the formula NH25NH2, which is similar to putrescine...

, or spermidine

Spermidine

Spermidine is a polyamine involved in cellular metabolism. Its known actions include:#Inhibition of neuronal nitric oxide synthase, nNOS#Assisting the in vitro process of transcribing RNA via stimulation of T4 polynucleotide kinase and T7 RNA polymerase activity; it binds to and precipitates DNA...

) to the SpeF leader.

Other non-coding RNAs uncovered in the same analysis include: suhB

SuhB

SuhB is a putative non-coding RNA found multiple times in the Agrobacterium tumefaciens genome and related alpha-proteobacteria. It is believed not to be a cis-acting element, but a small RNA....

, ybhL

YbhL leader

The YbhL leader is a putative structured RNA element that is found upstream of the uncharacterized YbhL membrane protein in alpha-proteobacteria.Other non-coding RNAs uncovered in the same analysis include: speF, suhB, metA and serC....

, metA and serC.