The carbon catabolite repressor CcpA mediates optimal competence development in Streptococcus oligofermentans through post-transcriptional regulation.

Publisher: Blackwell Scientific Publications Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 8712028 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1365-2958 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 0950382X NLM ISO Abbreviation: Mol Microbiol Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Oxford, OX ; Boston, MA : Blackwell Scientific Publications, c1987-

Catabolite Repression* ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*; Bacterial Proteins/*metabolism ; Repressor Proteins/*metabolism ; Streptococcus/*growth & development ; Streptococcus/*metabolism; Bacterial Proteins/genetics ; Carbon/metabolism ; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental ; Operon ; Repressor Proteins/genetics ; Streptococcus/genetics ; Transcription, Genetic

Natural transformation increases the genetic diversity of bacteria, but is costly and must be strictly controlled. We previously found that deletion of ccpA, a key regulator of carbon catabolite repression (CCR), reduced transformation efficiency of Streptococcus oligofermentans, the current work further investigated the regulatory mechanisms of CcpA. The competence operon comCDE is subjected to basal and autoregulatory transcription. A luciferase reporter detected a transcriptional readthrough (TRT) from the upstream tRNA ^Arg into the comCDE operon, which was induced by L -arginine. Insertion of the Escherichia coli T1T2 terminator downstream of tRNA ^Arg abolished TRT, and reduced the basal comCDE transcription by 77% and also the transformation efficiency. Deletion of ccpA increased tRNA ^Arg TRT and tRNA ^Arg -comCDE polycistronic transcript by twofold. An in vitro transcription assay determined that CcpA promoted the transcription termination of tRNA ^Arg TRT, and RNA EMSA and SPR assays detected equal binding affinity of CcpA to both the RNA and DNA of tRNA ^Arg . These results indicate that CcpA controls the basal comCDE transcription by post-transcriptional actions. Overexpression of comDE or its phospho-mimicking mutant comDE ^D58E reduced transformation efficiency, indicating that excessive ComE impairs competence development. CCR-regulated competence was further confirmed by higher tRNA ^Arg TRT but lower transformation efficiency in galactose than in glucose.
(© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

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0 (Bacterial Proteins)
0 (Repressor Proteins)
7440-44-0 (Carbon)

Date Created: 20190511 Date Completed: 20200511 Latest Revision: 20200511

20231215

10.1111/mmi.14274

31074889