Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica/Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Oeiras, Portugal.
J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2011 Mar;21(3):243-51.
The gene bolA was discovered in the 80's, but unraveling its function in the cell has proven to be a complex task. The BolA protein has pleiotropic effects over cell physiology, altering growth and morphology, inducing biofilm formation, and regulating the balance of several membrane proteins. Recently, BolA was shown to be a transcription factor by repressing the expression of the mreB gene. The present report shows that BolA is a transcriptional regulator of the dacA and dacC genes, thus regulating both DD-carboxypeptidases PBP5 and PBP6 and thereby demonstrating the versatility of BolA as a cellular regulator. In this work, we also demonstrate that reduction of cell growth and survival can be connected to the overexpression of the bolA gene in different E. coli backgrounds, particularly in the exponential growth phase. The most interesting finding is that overproduction of BolA affects bacterial growth differently depending on whether the cells were inoculated directly from a plate culture or from an overnight batch culture. This strengthens the idea that BolA can be engaged in the coordination of genes that adapt the cell physiology in order to enhance cell adaptation and survival under stress conditions.
BolA 基因于 80 年代被发现，但证明其在细胞中的功能是一项复杂的任务。BolA 蛋白对细胞生理学有多种影响，改变生长和形态，诱导生物膜形成，并调节几种膜蛋白的平衡。最近，BolA 被证明是一种转录因子，通过抑制 mreB 基因的表达来发挥作用。本报告显示，BolA 是 dacA 和 dacC 基因的转录调节剂，从而调节 DD-羧肽酶 PBP5 和 PBP6，从而证明 BolA 作为一种细胞调节剂的多功能性。在这项工作中，我们还证明，在不同的大肠杆菌背景下，细胞生长和存活的减少可以与 bolA 基因的过表达有关，特别是在指数生长阶段。最有趣的发现是，BolA 的过度产生会根据细胞是直接从平板培养物还是从过夜批量培养物接种而对细菌生长产生不同的影响。这加强了这样一种观点，即 BolA 可以参与协调适应细胞生理学的基因，以增强细胞在应激条件下的适应和生存能力。
