1887

Abstract

Curli are necessary for the adherence of to surfaces, and to each other, during biofilm formation, and the and operons are both required for their synthesis. A recent survey of gene expression in biofilms has identified as a gene activated in biofilms. The genes play a fundamental role in maintaining the outer-membrane integrity of Gram-negative bacteria. RcsC, the sensor of the RcsBCD phosphorelay, is involved, together with RcsA, in colanic acid capsule synthesis, and also modulates the expression of and . In addition, the RcsBCD phosphorelay is activated in mutants or when Tol proteins are overexpressed. These results led the authors to investigate the role of the genes in biofilm formation in laboratory and clinical isolates of . It was shown that the adherence of cells was lowered in the mutants. This could be the result of a drastic decrease in the expression of the operon, even though the expression of was slightly increased under such conditions. It was also shown that the Rcs system negatively controls the expression of the two operons in an RcsA-dependent manner. In the mutants, activation of occurred via OmpR and was dominant upon repression by RcsB and RcsA, while these two regulatory proteins repressed through a dominant effect on the activator protein CsgD, thus affecting curli synthesis. The results demonstrate that the Rcs system, previously known to control the synthesis of the capsule and the flagella, is an additional component involved in the regulation of curli. Furthermore, it is shown that the defect in cell motility observed in the mutants depends on RcsB and RcsA.

Keyword(s): A, enzyme activity
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2005-07-01
2024-03-28
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