Population fitness and the regulation of Escherichia coli genes by bacterial viruses.
Temperate bacteriophage parasitize their host by integrating into the host genome where they provide additional genetic information that confers higher fitness on the host bacterium by protecting it against invasion by other bacteriophage, by increasing serum resistance, and by coding for toxins and adhesion factors that help the parasitized bacterium invade or evade its host. Here we ask if a temperate phage can also regulate host genes. We find several different host functions that are down-regulated in lysogens. The pckA gene, required for gluconeogenesis in all living systems, is regulated directly by the principal repressor of many different temperate prophage, the cI protein. cI binds to the regulatory region of pckA, thereby shutting down pckA transcription. The pckA regulatory region has target sequences for many other temperate phage repressors, and thus we suggest that down-regulation of the host pckA pathway increases lysogen fitness by lowering the growth rate of lysogens in energy-poor environments, perhaps as an adaptive response to the host predation system or as an aspect of lysogeny that must be offset by down-regulating pckA.
Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
Ying
Y
Chen
Ido
I
Golding
Satoshi
S
Sawai
Ling
L
Guo
Edward C
EC
Cox
D010582:Bacteriophage lambda / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D015536:Down-Regulation; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008242:Lysogeny; D019764:Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase (ATP) / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000502:physiology; D039002:Prophages / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D015854:Up-Regulation; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins; C016649:phage repressor proteins; D019764:Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase (ATP)