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Volume 154, Issue 8

The DegU orphan response regulator of autorepresses its own synthesis and is required for bacterial motility, virulence and biofilm formation Free

Abstract

The Gram-positive intracellular pathogen is endowed with 17 sets of genes encoding two-component systems. is closely related to the Gram-positive model bacterium , in which we have shown previously that the DegS/DegU system plays a central role in controlling stationary phase adaptive responses, including degradative enzyme synthesis and competence. Although an orthologue of the DegU response regulator is present in , the gene encoding the cognate DegS kinase is conspicuously absent. We have inactivated the gene of and shown that DegU negatively regulates its own synthesis. Direct binding of DegU to its own promoter region was shown by gel mobility shift and DNase I footprinting experiments. DegU was also shown to bind upstream from the operon, which also encodes the GmaR anti-repressor of flagellar synthesis. In contrast to the situation in , DegU was shown to be essential for flagellar synthesis and bacterial motility in and is cotranscribed with the gene located downstream. We also show that DegU is required for growth at high temperatures, adherence to plastic surfaces and the formation of efficient biofilms by . DegU plays a role in virulence of as well: in a murine intravenous infection model, an 11-fold increase in LD was observed for the mutant. Taken together, our results indicate that despite the lack of the DegS kinase, DegU is fully functional as an orphan response regulator, and plays a central role in controlling several crucial adaptive responses in .

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Revised:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): EMSA, electrophoresis mobility shift assay , qRT-PCR, quantitative real-time PCR and TCS, two-component system
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2008-08-01
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The DegU orphan response regulator of Listeria monocytogenes autorepresses its own synthesis and is required for bacterial motility, virulence and biofilm formation
Microbiology 154, 2251 (2008); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.2008/017590-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2008/017590-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2008/017590-0
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