The Uropathogenic Specific Protein Gene usp from Escherichia coli and Salmonella bongori is a Novel Member of the TyrR and H-NS Regulons

The Escherichia coli PAIusp is a small pathogenicity island encoding usp, for the uropathogenic specific protein (Usp), a genotoxin and three associated downstream imu1-3 genes that protect the producer against its own toxin. Bioinformatic analysis revealed the presence of the PAIusp also in publically available Salmonella bongori and Salmonella enterica subps. salamae genome sequences. PAIusp is in all examined sequences integrated within the aroP-pdhR chromosomal intergenic region. The focus of this work was identification of the usp promoter and regulatory elements controlling its activity. We show that, in both E. coli and S. bongori, the divergent TyrR regulated P3 promoter of the aroP gene, encoding an aromatic amino acid membrane transporter, drives usp transcription while H-NS acts antagonistically repressing expression. Our results show that the horizontally acquired PAIusp has integrated into the TyrR regulatory network and that environmental factors such as aromatic amino acids, temperature and urea induce usp expression.