State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources and College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Road, Nanning, Guangxi, 530004, China.
Environ Microbiol Rep. 2018 Oct;10(5):542-554. doi: 10.1111/1758-2229.12657. Epub 2018 Aug 9.
The RNA chaperone, Hfq, is known to play extensive roles in bacterial growth and development. More recently, it has been shown to be required for virulence in many human and animal bacterial pathogens. Despite these studies little is known about the role Hfq plays in phytopathogenic bacteria. In this study, we show Hfq is required for full virulence of the crucifer black rot pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc). We demonstrate that an Xcc hfq deletion strain is highly attenuated for virulence in Chinese radish and shows a severe defect in the production of virulence factors including extracellular enzymes and extracellular polysaccharide. Furthermore, the Xcc strain lacking Hfq had significantly reduced cell motility and stress tolerance. These findings suggest that Hfq is a key regulator of important aspects of virulence and adaptation of Xcc. Taken together, our findings are suggestive of a regulatory network placing Hfq at the centre of virulence gene expression control in Xcc.
RNA 伴侣蛋白 Hfq 已知在细菌的生长和发育中发挥广泛的作用。最近的研究表明，它对于许多人和动物的细菌病原体的毒力是必需的。尽管有这些研究，但对于 Hfq 在植物病原细菌中所扮演的角色知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们表明 Hfq 是十字花科黑腐病菌（Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris，Xcc）完全毒力所必需的。我们证明，Xcc hfq 缺失株在白菜中的毒力严重减弱，并且在产生毒力因子（包括胞外酶和胞外多糖）方面存在严重缺陷。此外，缺乏 Hfq 的 Xcc 菌株的细胞运动性和应激耐受性显著降低。这些发现表明 Hfq 是 Xcc 毒力和适应的重要方面的关键调节剂。总之，我们的发现表明，Hfq 是 Xcc 中毒力基因表达调控的中心。
