title: The chvH locus of Agrobacterium encodes a homologue of an elongation factor involved in protein synthesis.
abstract: The virulence of Agrobacterium tumefaciens depends on both chromosome- and Ti plasmid-encoded gene products. In this study, we characterize a chromosomal locus, chvH, previously identified by TnphoA mutagenesis and shown to be required for tumor formation. Through DNA sequencing and comparison of the sequence with identified sequences in the database, we show that this locus encodes a protein similar in sequence to elongation factor P, a protein thought to be involved in peptide bond synthesis in Escherichia coli. The analysis of vir-lacZ and vir-phoA translational fusions as well as Western immunoblotting revealed that the expression of Vir proteins such as VirE2 was significantly reduced in the chvH mutant compared with the wild-type strain. The E. coli efp gene complemented detergent sensitivity, virulence, and expression of VirE2 in the chvH mutant, suggesting that chvH and efp are functionally homologous. As expected, ChvH exerts its activity at the posttranscriptional level. Southern analysis suggests that the gene encoding this elongation factor is present as a single copy in A. tumefaciens. We constructed a chvH deletion mutant in which a 445-bp fragment within its coding sequence was deleted and replaced with an omega fragment. On complex medium, this mutant grew more slowly than the wild-type strain, indicating that elongation factor P is important but not essential for the growth of Agrobacterium.
authors: Department of Microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-7242, USA.
authors: W T
authors: WT
authors: Peng
authors: L M
authors: LM
authors: Banta
authors: T C
authors: TC
authors: Charles
authors: E W
authors: EW
authors: Nester
mesh_terms: D016960:Agrobacterium tumefaciens / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010445:Peptide Elongation Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C418188:ChvH protein, Agrobacterium tumefaciens; D010445:Peptide Elongation Factors