Brillard Julien, Susanna Kim, Michaud Caroline, Dargaignaratz Claire, Gohar Michel, Nielsen-Leroux Christina, Ramarao Nalini, Kolstø Anne-Brit, Nguyen-the Christophe, Lereclus Didier, Broussolle Véronique
UMR408, Sécurité et Qualité des Produits d'Origine Végétale, INRA, Université d'Avignon, F-84000 Avignon, France.
BMC Microbiol. 2008 Oct 16;8:183. doi: 10.1186/1471-2180-8-183.
Most extracellular virulence factors produced by Bacillus cereus are regulated by the pleiotropic transcriptional activator PlcR. Among strains belonging to the B. cereus group, the plcR gene is always located in the vicinity of genes encoding the YvfTU two-component system. The putative role of YvfTU in the expression of the PlcR regulon was therefore investigated.
Expression of the plcR gene was monitored using a transcriptional fusion with a lacZ reporter gene in a yvfTU mutant and in its B. cereus ATCC 14579 parental strain. Two hours after the onset of the stationary phase, a stage at which the PlcR regulon is highly expressed, the plcR expression in the yvfTU mutant was only 50% of that of its parental strain. In addition to the reduced plcR expression in the yvfTU mutant, a few members of the PlcR regulon showed a differential expression, as revealed by transcriptomic and proteomic analyses. The virulence of the yvfTU mutant in a Galleria mellonella insect model was slightly lower than that of the parental strain.
The YvfTU two-component system is not required for the expression of most of the virulence factors belonging to the PlcR regulon. However, YvfTU is involved in expression of plcR, a major regulator of virulence in B. cereus.
蜡样芽孢杆菌产生的大多数细胞外毒力因子受多效转录激活因子PlcR调控。在蜡样芽孢杆菌群的菌株中,plcR基因总是位于编码YvfTU双组分系统的基因附近。因此,研究了YvfTU在PlcR调控子表达中的假定作用。
在yvfTU突变体及其蜡样芽孢杆菌ATCC 14579亲本菌株中,使用与lacZ报告基因的转录融合来监测plcR基因的表达。在稳定期开始两小时后,即PlcR调控子高度表达的阶段,yvfTU突变体中plcR的表达仅为其亲本菌株的50%。除了yvfTU突变体中plcR表达降低外,转录组学和蛋白质组学分析表明,PlcR调控子的一些成员表现出差异表达。yvfTU突变体在黄粉虫昆虫模型中的毒力略低于亲本菌株。
PlcR调控子的大多数毒力因子的表达不需要YvfTU双组分系统。然而,YvfTU参与plcR的表达,plcR是蜡样芽孢杆菌毒力的主要调节因子。