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The MqsRA Toxin-Antitoxin System from Xylella fastidiosa Plays a Key Role in Bacterial Fitness, Pathogenicity, and Persister Cell Formation
Through the formation of persister cells, bacteria exhibit tolerance to multidrug and other environmental stresses without undergoing genetic changes. The toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are involved in the formation of persister cells because they are able to induce cell dormancy. Among the TA systems...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4901048/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27375608 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00904 |
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author | Merfa, Marcus V. Niza, Bárbara Takita, Marco A. De Souza, Alessandra A. |
author_facet | Merfa, Marcus V. Niza, Bárbara Takita, Marco A. De Souza, Alessandra A. |
author_sort | Merfa, Marcus V. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Through the formation of persister cells, bacteria exhibit tolerance to multidrug and other environmental stresses without undergoing genetic changes. The toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are involved in the formation of persister cells because they are able to induce cell dormancy. Among the TA systems, the MqsRA system has been observed to be highly induced in persister cells of Xylella fastidiosa (causal agent of citrus variegated chlorosis—CVC) activated by copper stress, and has been described in Escherichia coli as related to the formation of persister cells and biofilms. Thus, we evaluated the role of this TA system in X. fastidiosa by overexpressing the MqsR toxin, and verified that the toxin positively regulated biofilm formation and negatively cell movement, resulting in reduced pathogenicity in citrus plants. The overexpression of MqsR also increased the formation of persister cells under copper stress. Analysis of the gene and protein expression showed that this system likely has an autoregulation mechanism to express the toxin and antitoxin in the most beneficial ratio for the cell to oppose stress. Our results suggest that this TA system plays a key role in the adaptation and survival of X. fastidiosa and reveal new insights into the physiology of phytopathogen-host interactions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4901048 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49010482016-07-01 The MqsRA Toxin-Antitoxin System from Xylella fastidiosa Plays a Key Role in Bacterial Fitness, Pathogenicity, and Persister Cell Formation Merfa, Marcus V. Niza, Bárbara Takita, Marco A. De Souza, Alessandra A. Front Microbiol Plant Science Through the formation of persister cells, bacteria exhibit tolerance to multidrug and other environmental stresses without undergoing genetic changes. The toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are involved in the formation of persister cells because they are able to induce cell dormancy. Among the TA systems, the MqsRA system has been observed to be highly induced in persister cells of Xylella fastidiosa (causal agent of citrus variegated chlorosis—CVC) activated by copper stress, and has been described in Escherichia coli as related to the formation of persister cells and biofilms. Thus, we evaluated the role of this TA system in X. fastidiosa by overexpressing the MqsR toxin, and verified that the toxin positively regulated biofilm formation and negatively cell movement, resulting in reduced pathogenicity in citrus plants. The overexpression of MqsR also increased the formation of persister cells under copper stress. Analysis of the gene and protein expression showed that this system likely has an autoregulation mechanism to express the toxin and antitoxin in the most beneficial ratio for the cell to oppose stress. Our results suggest that this TA system plays a key role in the adaptation and survival of X. fastidiosa and reveal new insights into the physiology of phytopathogen-host interactions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4901048/ /pubmed/27375608 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00904 Text en Copyright © 2016 Merfa, Niza, Takita and De Souza. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Plant Science Merfa, Marcus V. Niza, Bárbara Takita, Marco A. De Souza, Alessandra A. The MqsRA Toxin-Antitoxin System from Xylella fastidiosa Plays a Key Role in Bacterial Fitness, Pathogenicity, and Persister Cell Formation |
title | The MqsRA Toxin-Antitoxin System from Xylella fastidiosa Plays a Key Role in Bacterial Fitness, Pathogenicity, and Persister Cell Formation |
title_full | The MqsRA Toxin-Antitoxin System from Xylella fastidiosa Plays a Key Role in Bacterial Fitness, Pathogenicity, and Persister Cell Formation |
title_fullStr | The MqsRA Toxin-Antitoxin System from Xylella fastidiosa Plays a Key Role in Bacterial Fitness, Pathogenicity, and Persister Cell Formation |
title_full_unstemmed | The MqsRA Toxin-Antitoxin System from Xylella fastidiosa Plays a Key Role in Bacterial Fitness, Pathogenicity, and Persister Cell Formation |
title_short | The MqsRA Toxin-Antitoxin System from Xylella fastidiosa Plays a Key Role in Bacterial Fitness, Pathogenicity, and Persister Cell Formation |
title_sort | mqsra toxin-antitoxin system from xylella fastidiosa plays a key role in bacterial fitness, pathogenicity, and persister cell formation |
topic | Plant Science |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4901048/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27375608 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00904 |
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