The exogenous gene expression and its impacts on the bacterial population are important to study quorum sensing systems and synthetic biology industry. However, the behavior of exogenous protein expressing bacteria remains poorly understood. To find out which factors are playing a critical role in the growth of population and exogenous gene expression, we measured Lux-type receptor-regulated exogenous gene expression under the induction of N-acyl homoserine lactone (N-AHL) signaling molecules and impacts on the bacterial population dynamics after such stimulation. To analyze the cause of fitness burden of bacteria, we set up a hypothetical mathematical model. Previous studies often arrogate this phenomenon to the synthesis cost and the toxicity of N-AHL signaling molecule. However, we suggested another possible cause of the fitness burden.
Bacteria ; Gene Expression ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Quorum Sensing

OBJECTIVEThis research aimed to detect the expression levels of ffh gene in Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) UA159 under different pH conditions, analyze the effect of pH on the expression of ffh gene in S. mutans, and identify the factors regulating the ffh gene expression.

METHODSSamples of S. mutans were collected at different growth stages (4 h, 18 h) and pH values (pH 4.0-7.0). Fluorescence quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to measure the relative mRNA expression and trend of the target gene ffh in S. mutans at different growth stages and pH values.

RESULTSqRT-PCR results showed that the ffh gene expression decreased along with pH at 4 h, but the expression increased with decreasing pH at 18 h. Under the same pH conditions, the ffh gene expression was significantly different between 4 h and 18 h (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONGrowth stage and pH value influenced the ffh gene expression in S. mutans.

Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Genes, Regulator ; Humans ; Streptococcus mutans ; genetics

Promoter, an essential regulatory element, is widely used for metabolic engineering of industrial strains. Corynebacterium glutamicum is an important industrial workhorse to produce various amino acids. However, strong constitutive promoters that are applicable to C. glutamicum are rarely reported. In this study, we first performed a time-series transcriptome analysis of a glutamate hyper-producing strain C. glutamicum SL4 by using RNA-Seq. Overall, we picked 10 samples at different time during the fermentation process. By analyzing the time-series transcriptome data, we selected 10 candidate genes with the highest transcriptional level. These genes were all transcribed stably during the fermentation process. We subsequently cloned the promoter sequences and evaluated the promoters' strength in strain SL4 using a red fluorescent protein reporter system. To evaluate the universality of the promoters in different C. glutamicum strains, we further tested the performance of some promoters in wild type C. glutamicum strains, including ATCC 13869 and ATCC 13032. The strongest promoter was further characterized using LacZ as a reporter in all the three C. glutamicum strains. Finally, we successfully obtained three constitutive promoters with universality, PcysK, PgapA and PfumC. PcysK is the most efficient promoter among the three C. glutamicum strains. In strains SL4 and ATCC 13869, the strength of PcysK is 2-fold of the strong inducible promoter Ptac using the red fluorescent protein as a reporter and 4-fold of Ptac using LacZ as a reporter. Moreover, the strength of PcysK reaches 30%-40% of Ptac in strain ATCC 13032. The promoter PcysK is identified as a strong promoter for the first time, which can be used as an efficient biobrick for metabolic engineering of synthesis pathways in C. glutamicum.
Corynebacterium glutamicum ; genetics ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Metabolic Engineering ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; Transcriptome

TetR family transcriptional regulators (TFRs) are widely distributed in bacteria and archaea, and the first discovered TFR was confirmed to control the expression of tetracycline efflux pump in Escherichia coli. TFRs can bind DNAs and ligands. Small molecule ligands can induce conformational changes of TFRs, inhibiting or promoting TFRs to control target gene expression. Currently, TFRs have a wide variety of ligands, including carbohydrates, proteins, fatty acids and their derivatives, metal ions, and so on. Due to the diversity of ligands, TFRs regulate a wide range of physiological processes, from basic carbon metabolism and nitrogen metabolism to quorum sensing and antibiotic biosynthesis. On the basis of the recent studies in our laboratory and the literature, we review here the regulatory mechanism mediated by ligands of TFRs in primary and secondary metabolism, as well as the application of ligands for TFRs in the development of gene route and the activation of antibiotic biosynthesis.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bacteria/metabolism* ; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Ligands ; Quorum Sensing

MarR family transcription regulators are ubiquitous among bacteria and archaea. They extensively control multiple cellular processes and elaborately regulate the expression of genes involved in virulence, stress response and antibiotics at translational level. In Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, insertional inactivation of MarR family transcription regulator HpaR (XC2827) resulted in significantly decrease in virulence and increase in the production of the extracellular proteases. Here, we reported that the genome of Xcc 8004 encodes nine MarR family transcription regulators. The MarR family transcription regulators, HpaR (XC2827) and XC0449, were heterologous expressed and purified. In vitro MST and Pull-down assay confirmed the physical interaction between HpaR and XC0449. Phenotypical assay determined that deletion of XC0449 resulted in substantial virulence attenuation. In vitro EMSA, in vivo qRT-PCR and GUS activity assay identified that HpaR and XC0449 coordinately act as the transcriptional activator to regulate the expression of the virulence-associated gene XC0705, and eventually control the bacterial virulence and the production of extracellular proteases.
Bacterial Proteins ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Transcription Factors ; Virulence ; Xanthomonas campestris

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, the main pathogen causing seafood related food poisoning worldwide, has strong biofilm formation ability. ToxR is a membrane binding regulatory protein, which has regulatory effect on biofilm formation of V. parahaemolyticus, but the specific mechanism has not been reported. c-di-GMP is an important second messenger in bacteria and is involved in regulating a variety of bacterial behaviors including biofilm formation. In this study, we investigated the regulation of ToxR on c-di-GMP metabolism in V. parahaemolyticus. Intracellular c-di-GMP in the wild type (WT) and toxR mutant (ΔtoxR) strains were extracted by ultrasonication, and the concentrations of c-di-GMP were then determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Three c-di-GMP metabolism-related genes scrA, scrG and vpa0198 were selected as the target genes. Quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR) was employed to calculate the transcriptional variation of each target gene between WT and ΔtoxR strains. The regulatory DNA region of each target gene was cloned into the pHR309 plasmid harboring a promoterless lacZ gene. The recombinant plasmid was subsequently transferred into WT and ΔtoxR strains to detect the β-galactosidase activity in the cellular extracts. The recombinant lacZ plasmid containing each of the target gene was also transferred into E. coli 100λpir strain harboring the pBAD33 plasmid or the recombinant pBAD33-toxR to test whether ToxR could regulate the expression of the target gene in a heterologous host. The regulatory DNA region of each target gene was amplified by PCR, and the over-expressed His-ToxR was purified. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) was applied to verify whether His-ToxR directly bound to the target promoter region. ELISA results showed that the intracellular c-di-GMP level significantly enhanced in ΔtoxR strain relative to that in WT strain, suggesting that ToxR inhibited the production of c-di-GMP in V. parahaemolyticus. qPCR results showed that the mRNA levels of scrA, scrG and vpa0198 significantly increased in ΔtoxR strain relative to those in WT strain, suggesting that ToxR repressed the transcription of scrA, scrG and vpa0198. lacZ fusion assay showed that ToxR was able to repress the promoter activities of scrA, scrG and vpa0198 in both V. parahaemolyticus and E. coli 100λpir. EMSA results showed that His-ToxR was able to bind to the regulatory DNA regions of scrA and scrG, but not to the regulatory DNA region of vpa0198. In conclusion, ToxR inhibited the production of c-di-GMP in V. parahaemolyticus via directly regulating the transcription of enzyme genes associated with c-di-GMP metabolism, which would be beneficial for V. parahaemolyticus to precisely control bacterial behaviors including biofilm formation.
Vibrio parahaemolyticus/metabolism* ; Escherichia coli/metabolism* ; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism* ; Transcription Factors/genetics* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial

Animals ; Bacterial Proteins/metabolism* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Plague ; Transcription Factors/genetics* ; Yersinia pestis/genetics*

Bacterial biofilm refers to a tunicate-like biological group composed of polysaccharide, protein and nucleic acid secreted by bacteria on the surface of the mucous membrane or biological material. The biofilm formation is a major cause of chronic infections. Bacteria could produce some secondary metabolites during the growth and reproduction. Some of them act as signaling molecules allowing bacteria to communicate and regulate many important physiological behaviors at multiple-cell level, such as bioluminescence, biofilm formation, motility and lifestyles. Usually, these signal molecules play an important role in the formation of bacterial biofilm. We review here the effects of related signal molecules of Quorum Sensing, cyclic diguanylate, Two-Component Systems and sRNA on the biofilm formation. Focusing on these regulation mechanism of signal molecules in the process of biofilm formation is necessary for the prevention and treatment of some chronic diseases.
Bacterial Proteins ; Biofilms ; Cyclic GMP ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Protein Binding ; Quorum Sensing

Objective: To investigate reciprocal regulation between Fur and two RyhB homologs in Methods: Regulatory relationships were assessed by a combination of colony morphology assay, primer extension, electrophoretic mobility shift assay and DNase I footprinting. Results: Fur bound to the promoter-proximal DNA regions of Conclusion Fur and the two RyhB homologs exert negative reciprocal regulation, and RyhB homologs have a positive regulatory effect on biofilm formation in
Bacterial Proteins/metabolism* ; Biofilms ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial/physiology* ; Yersinia pestis/physiology*