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A transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render Vibrio cholerae naturally transformable
The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae is an aquatic bacterium associated with zooplankton and their chitinous exoskeletons. On chitinous surfaces, V. cholerae initiates a developmental programme, known as natural competence, to mediate transformation, which is a mode of horizontal gene transfer. Compet...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616704/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23382174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkt041 |
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author | Lo Scrudato, Mirella Blokesch, Melanie |
author_facet | Lo Scrudato, Mirella Blokesch, Melanie |
author_sort | Lo Scrudato, Mirella |
collection | PubMed |
description | The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae is an aquatic bacterium associated with zooplankton and their chitinous exoskeletons. On chitinous surfaces, V. cholerae initiates a developmental programme, known as natural competence, to mediate transformation, which is a mode of horizontal gene transfer. Competence facilitates the uptake of free DNA and recombination into the bacterial genome. Recent studies have indicated that chitin surfaces are required, but not sufficient to induce competence. Two additional regulatory pathways, i.e. catabolite repression and quorum sensing (QS), are components of the regulatory network that controls natural competence in V. cholerae. In this study, we investigated the link between chitin induction and QS. We show that the major regulators of these two pathways, TfoX and HapR, are both involved in the activation of a gene encoding a transcriptional regulator of the LuxR-type family, which we named QS and TfoX-dependent regulator (QstR). We demonstrate that HapR binds the promoter of qstR in a site-specific manner, indicating a role for HapR as an activator of qstR. In addition, epistasis experiments indicate that QstR compensates for the absence of HapR. We also provide evidence that QstR is required for the proper expression of a small but essential subset of competence genes and propose a new regulatory model in which QstR links chitin-induced TfoX activity with QS. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3616704 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36167042013-04-04 A transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render Vibrio cholerae naturally transformable Lo Scrudato, Mirella Blokesch, Melanie Nucleic Acids Res Molecular Biology The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae is an aquatic bacterium associated with zooplankton and their chitinous exoskeletons. On chitinous surfaces, V. cholerae initiates a developmental programme, known as natural competence, to mediate transformation, which is a mode of horizontal gene transfer. Competence facilitates the uptake of free DNA and recombination into the bacterial genome. Recent studies have indicated that chitin surfaces are required, but not sufficient to induce competence. Two additional regulatory pathways, i.e. catabolite repression and quorum sensing (QS), are components of the regulatory network that controls natural competence in V. cholerae. In this study, we investigated the link between chitin induction and QS. We show that the major regulators of these two pathways, TfoX and HapR, are both involved in the activation of a gene encoding a transcriptional regulator of the LuxR-type family, which we named QS and TfoX-dependent regulator (QstR). We demonstrate that HapR binds the promoter of qstR in a site-specific manner, indicating a role for HapR as an activator of qstR. In addition, epistasis experiments indicate that QstR compensates for the absence of HapR. We also provide evidence that QstR is required for the proper expression of a small but essential subset of competence genes and propose a new regulatory model in which QstR links chitin-induced TfoX activity with QS. Oxford University Press 2013-04 2013-02-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3616704/ /pubmed/23382174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkt041 Text en © The Author(s) 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Molecular Biology Lo Scrudato, Mirella Blokesch, Melanie A transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render Vibrio cholerae naturally transformable |
title | A transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render Vibrio cholerae naturally transformable |
title_full | A transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render Vibrio cholerae naturally transformable |
title_fullStr | A transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render Vibrio cholerae naturally transformable |
title_full_unstemmed | A transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render Vibrio cholerae naturally transformable |
title_short | A transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render Vibrio cholerae naturally transformable |
title_sort | transcriptional regulator linking quorum sensing and chitin induction to render vibrio cholerae naturally transformable |
topic | Molecular Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616704/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23382174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkt041 |
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