In absence of arabinose, AraC binds to
Without L-arabinose, AraC apoprotein adopts conformation strongly promoting looping-mediated repression of araBAD operon. Dimer bridges high-affinity araO2 site centered approximately minus 280 upstream and araI1 site at minus 106, with intervening 210 base pairs bent into looped architecture demonstrated by electron microscopy. Crystallographic studies show N-terminal arms dimerize antiparallel, stabilizing loop topology. Looped conformation buries PBAD minus35 promoter element and occludes CAP-cAMP binding site, preventing RNA polymerase holoenzyme initiation. Approximately twenty AraC molec
Ref: Science DNA Looping by AraC – apo-AraC prefers looping between araO2 and araI1 repressing araBAD.