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Volume 150, Issue 5

Unique organization and regulation of the fimbrial operon in Free

Abstract

, a Gram-negative bacterium belonging to the clade of the family , forms a mutualistic association with the soil nematode . The nematode invades insects and releases into the haemolymph, where it participates in insect killing. To begin to understand the role of fimbriae in the unique life cycle of , the organization and expression of the fimbrial operon was analysed. The operon contained only five structural genes (), making it one of the smallest chaperone-usher fimbrial operons studied to date. Unlike the operon of , a site-specific recombinase was not linked to the operon. The intergenic region between the major fimbrial gene () and the usher gene () lacked a -like gene, but contained three tandem inverted repeat sequences located downstream of . A 940 nt -containing mRNA was the major transcript produced in cells growing on agar, while an polycistronic mRNA was produced at low levels. A canonical promoter, identified upstream of , was not subject to promoter inversion. Fimbriae were not produced in an -mutant strain, suggesting that the leucine-responsive regulatory protein, Lrp, plays a role in the regulation of the operon. These findings show that the genetic organization and regulation of the operon is in several respects distinct from other chaperone-usher fimbrial operons.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): CRP, cyclic AMP receptor protein
SGM
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2004-05-01
2024-04-19
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Unique organization and regulation of the mrx fimbrial operon in Xenorhabdus nematophila
Microbiology 150, 1439 (2004); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.26853-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.26853-0
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