Virulence Gene Expression In Pathogens Research Articles

Structural basis for (p)ppGpp synthesis by the Staphylococcus aureus small alarmone synthetase RelP

The stringent response is a global reprogramming of bacterial physiology that renders cells more tolerant to antibiotics and induces virulence gene expression in pathogens in response to stress. This process is driven by accumulation of the intracellular alarmone guanosine-5'-di(tri)phosphate-3'-diphosphate ((p)ppGpp), which is produced by enzymes of the RelA SpoT homologue (RSH) family. The Gram-positive Firmicute pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus, encodes three RSH enzymes: a multidomain RSH (Rel) that senses amino acid starvation on the ribosome and two small alarmone synthetase (SAS) enzymes, RelQ (SAS1) and RelP (SAS2). In Bacillus subtilis, RelQ (SAS1) was shown to form a tetramer that is activated by pppGpp and inhibited by single-stranded RNA, but the structural and functional regulation of RelP (SAS2) is unexplored. Here, we present crystal structures of S. aureus RelP in two major functional states, pre-catalytic (bound to GTP and the non-hydrolyzable ATP analogue, adenosine 5'-(α,β-methylene)triphosphate (AMP-CPP)), and post-catalytic (bound to pppGpp). We observed that RelP also forms a tetramer, but unlike RelQ (SAS1), it is strongly inhibited by both pppGpp and ppGpp and is insensitive to inhibition by RNA. We also identified putative metal ion-binding sites at the subunit interfaces that were consistent with the observed activation of the enzyme by Zn2+ ions. The structures reported here reveal the details of the catalytic mechanism of SAS enzymes and provide a molecular basis for understanding differential regulation of SAS enzymes in Firmicute bacteria.

High and low-virulent bovine Pasteurella multocida capsular type A isolates exhibit different virulence gene expression patterns in vitro and in vivo

Pasteurella multocida capsular type A causes respiratory disease in cattle. P. multocida virulence gene expression patterns, especially among different virulent isolates, during in vitro and in vivo growth are poorly understood. Here we show that the highly virulent bovine P. multocida capsular type A isolate PmCQ2 exhibits a significantly higher growth rate in mice, as compared with a strain of lower virulence, P. multocida capsular type A isolate PmCQ6. Among the six known and potential virulence genes (ompA, ompH, pfhB2, hasR, pm0979, and pm0442) investigated, most genes were expressed more highly in both isolates when grown in vivo as compared with in vitro, with ompH and pm0442 having the highest magnitude of expression. Virulence gene expression was higher in PmCQ6 than in PmCQ2 during in vitro growth. However, in mice, most virulence genes were expressed more highly in PmCQ2 as compared with PmCQ6. Virulence gene expression was highest in the liver and lowest in the lung, but was uncorrelated to bacterial loads. This study indicates that individual pathogenic capacity of P. multocida isolates is associated with the virulence gene expression patterns in vivo growth but not in vitro, and the investigation of virulence gene expression in pathogen should be performed in vivo.

RNA remodeling by bacterial global regulator CsrA promotes Rho-dependent transcription termination.

RNA-binding protein CsrA is a key regulator of a variety of cellular processes in bacteria, including carbon and stationary phase metabolism, biofilm formation, quorum sensing, and virulence gene expression in pathogens. CsrA binds to bipartite sequence elements at or near the ribosome loading site in messenger RNA (mRNA), most often inhibiting translation initiation. Here we describe an alternative novel mechanism through which CsrA achieves negative regulation. We show that CsrA binding to the upstream portion of the 5' untranslated region of Escherichia coli pgaA mRNA-encoding a polysaccharide adhesin export protein-unfolds a secondary structure that sequesters an entry site for transcription termination factor Rho, resulting in the premature stop of transcription. These findings establish a new paradigm for bacterial gene regulation in which remodeling of the nascent transcript by a regulatory protein promotes Rho-dependent transcription attenuation.