title: Novel mutants of Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora defective in the production of plant cell wall degrading enzymes generated by Mu transpososome-mediated insertion mutagenesis.
abstract: As in Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora the regulation details of the main virulence factors, encoding extracellular enzymes that degrade the plant cell wall, is only rudimentally understood, we performed a genetic screen to identify novel candidate genes involved in the process. Initially, we used Mu transpososome-mediated mutagenesis approach to generate a comprehensive transposon insertion mutant library of ca. 10000 clones and screened the clones for the loss of extracellular enzyme production. Extracellular enzymes production was abolished by mutations in the chromosomal helEcc, trkAEcc yheLEcc, glsEcc, igaAEcc and cysQEcc genes. The findings reported here demonstrate that we have isolated six new representatives that belong to the pool of genes modulating the production of virulence factors in E. carotovora.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Tartu University, Estonian Biocenter, 23 Riia Street, Tartu 51010, Estonia.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Laasik
authors.forename: Merli
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ojarand
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pajunen
authors.forename: Harri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Savilahti
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mäe
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010583:Bacteriophage mu; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism*; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D018274:Electroporation; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D009154:Mutation; D016973:Pectobacterium carotovorum / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000382:microbiology; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements