Abstract
The cspD gene of Escherichia coli encodes a protein of high sequence similarity with the cold shock protein CspA, but cspD expression is not induced by cold shock. In this study, we analyzed the regulation of cspD gene expression. By using a cspD-lacZ fusion and primer extension analysis, the expression of cspD was found to be dramatically induced by stationary-phase growth. However, this induction does not depend on the stationary-phase sigma factor sigmaS. Moreover, the expression of cspD is inversely dependent on growth rates and induced upon glucose starvation. Using a (p)ppGpp-depleted strain, we found that (p)ppGpp is one of the positive factors for the regulation of cspD expression.