Güvener Zehra Tüzün, McCarter Linda L
Department of Microbiology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA.
J Bacteriol. 2003 Sep;185(18):5431-41. doi: 10.1128/JB.185.18.5431-5441.2003.
Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a biofouling marine bacterium and human pathogen, undergoes phase variation displaying translucent (TR) and opaque (OP) colony morphologies. Prior studies demonstrated that OP colonies produce more capsular polysaccharide (CPS) than TR colonies and that opacity is controlled by the Vibrio harveyi LuxR-type transcriptional activator OpaR. CPS has also been shown to be regulated by the scrABC signaling pathway, which involves a GGDEF-EAL motif-containing sensory protein. The present study identifies cps genes and examines their regulation. Transposon insertions in the cps locus, which contains 11 genes, abolished opacity. Such mutants failed to produce CPS and were defective in pellicle formation in microtiter wells and in a biofilm attachment assay. Reporter fusions to cpsA, the first gene in the locus, showed approximately 10-fold-enhanced transcription in the OP (opaR+) strain compared to a TR (deltaopaR) strain. Two additional transcriptional regulators were discovered. One potential activator, CpsR, participates in the scrABC GGDEF-EAL-signaling pathway; CpsR was required for the increased cps expression observed in scrA deltaopaR strains. CpsR, which contains a conserved module found in members of the AAA+ superfamily of ATP-interacting proteins, is homologous to Vibrio cholerae VpsR; however, unlike VpsR, CpsR was not essential for cps expression. CpsS, the second newly identified regulator, contains a CsgD-type DNA-binding domain and appears to act as a repressor. Mutants with cpsS defects have greatly elevated cps transcription; their high level of cpsA expression was CpsR dependent in TR strains and primarily OpaR dependent in OP strains. Thus, a network of positive and negative regulators modulates CPS production in V. parahaemolyticus.
副溶血性弧菌是一种可形成生物污垢的海洋细菌和人类病原体,会发生相变,呈现半透明(TR)和不透明(OP)两种菌落形态。先前的研究表明,OP菌落比TR菌落产生更多的荚膜多糖(CPS),且不透明性由哈维氏弧菌LuxR型转录激活因子OpaR控制。CPS也已被证明受scrABC信号通路调控,该通路涉及一种含GGDEF-EAL基序的传感蛋白。本研究鉴定了cps基因并研究了其调控机制。cps基因座(包含11个基因)中的转座子插入消除了不透明性。此类突变体无法产生CPS,在微量滴定板中的菌膜形成以及生物膜附着试验中均存在缺陷。与基因座中的第一个基因cpsA的报告基因融合显示,与TR(deltaopaR)菌株相比,OP(opaR +)菌株中的转录增强了约10倍。还发现了另外两个转录调节因子。一种潜在的激活因子CpsR参与scrABC GGDEF-EAL信号通路;在scrA deltaopaR菌株中观察到的cps表达增加需要CpsR。CpsR包含在ATP相互作用蛋白的AAA +超家族成员中发现的保守模块,与霍乱弧菌VpsR同源;然而,与VpsR不同,CpsR对于cps表达并非必不可少。第二个新鉴定的调节因子CpsS包含一个CsgD型DNA结合结构域,似乎起阻遏作用。具有cpsS缺陷的突变体的cps转录大大升高;它们高水平的cpsA表达在TR菌株中依赖于CpsR,而在OP菌株中主要依赖于OpaR。因此,正负调节因子网络调节副溶血性弧菌中CPS的产生。