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Volume 159, Issue Pt_11

Editor's Choice Surface swarming motility by is a latent phenotype that requires O antigen and is regulated by quorum sensing Free

Abstract

We describe a previously cryptic phenotype associated with the opportunistic phytopathogen (Pca): surface swarming. We found that when Pca was spotted onto plates containing <0.5 % (w/v) agar, the culture produced copious amounts of extracellular matrix material containing highly motile cells. Once produced, this ‘slime layer’ spread rapidly across the plate either as an advancing front or as tendrils. Transposon mutagenesis was used to identify mutants that were affected in swarming. Hypo-swarmer mutants mostly carried insertions in a horizontally acquired island (HAI5), which encodes a cluster of genes involved in O antigen biosynthesis. Hyper-swarmer mutants mostly carried insertions in , a known antagonist of the class I flagellar master regulator, FlhDC. In addition, we found that the nucleoid protein, histone-like nuclear structuring protein 2 (H-NS2), also regulated swarming behaviour. A mutant in which was overexpressed displayed a hyper-swarming phenotype, whereas a mutant in which the ORF was inactivated had a hypo-swarming phenotype. Swarming was also regulated by quorum sensing (QS) and by the carbon source being utilized. We show, using a range of epistasis experiments, that optimal swarming requires both motility and O antigen biosynthesis, and that H-NS2 and QS both promote swarming through their effects on motility.

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2013-11-01
2024-04-20
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Surface swarming motility by Pectobacterium atrosepticum is a latent phenotype that requires O antigen and is regulated by quorum sensing
Microbiology 159, 2375 (2013); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.070748-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.070748-0
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