The ropB protein binding location lies adjacent to speB promoter 1  that is also located within the highly repetitive intergenic region, however the ropB gene and the speB gene are transcribed in opposite directions. The -10 and -35 regions of speB promoter 1 have poor consensus; in order to ameliorate this, the ropB aids the RNA polymerase bondage with the help of a polyU polypyrimidine tract inside the palindromic inverted repeat region in a fashion uncannily similar to intrinsic termination in E.coli.