title: Yersinia pestis YrbH is a multifunctional protein required for both 3-deoxy-D-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid biosynthesis and biofilm formation.
abstract: Bubonic plague is transmitted by fleas whose feeding is blocked by a Yersinia pestis biofilm in the digestive tract. Y. pestis also block feeding of Caenorhabditis elegans by forming a biofilm on the nematode head, making the nematode an experimentally tractable surrogate for fleas to study plague transmission. Arabinose 5-phosphate isomerase (API), encoded by Y. pestis yrbH, catalyses the conversion of ribulose 5-phosphate into arabinose 5-phosphate (A5P), the first committed step in the 3-deoxy-D-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid (Kdo) biosynthesis pathway. Here we show that Y. pestis YrbH is a multifunctional protein required for both Kdo biosynthesis and biofilm formation on C. elegans. The YrbH protein contains four functional components: biofilm-related region 1 (B1), a sugar isomerase domain (SIS), biofilm-related region 2 (B2) and a cystathionine beta-synthase domain pair (CBS). B1, SIS and B2 are all required for API function, but any of the three is sufficient for a biofilm-related function. The CBS domain appears to negatively regulate the biofilm-related function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-2170, USA.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Creg
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Darby
mesh_terms: D019747:Aldose-Ketose Isomerases / Q000502:physiology*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D023421:Models, Animal; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010930:Plague / Q000635:transmission; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D013400:Sugar Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D015010:Yersinia pestis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D013400:Sugar Acids; C002532:2-keto-3-deoxyoctonate; D019747:Aldose-Ketose Isomerases