Citrinin, a mycotoxin from Penicillium citrinum, plays a role in inducing motility of Paenibacillus polymyxa.
Paenibacillus polymyxa, a Gram-positive low-G+C spore-forming soil bacterium, belongs to the plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. The swarming motility of P. polymyxa strain E681 was greatly induced by a secondary metabolite, citrinin, produced by Penicillium citrinum KCTC6549 in a dose-dependent manner at concentrations of 2.5-15.0 microg mL(-1) on tryptic soy agar plates containing 1.0% (w/v) agar. Flagellum staining showed that citrinin activated the production of flagella by P. polymyxa. This result was supported by reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis of gene expression, which showed increased transcriptional levels of sigD and hag homologues of P. polymyxa E681 in the presence of citrinin. The results presented here show that a mycotoxin, citrinin, has a newly identified function of inducing bacterial motility by transcriptional activation of related genes. This finding contributes to our understanding of the interactions between bacteria and fungal strains in nature.
Park
Soo-Young
SY
Systems Microbiology Research Center, KRIBB, Daejeon, Korea.
Kim
Rumi
R
Ryu
Choong-Min
CM
Choi
Soo-Keun
SK
Lee
Choong-Hwan
CH
Kim
Jong-Guk
JG
Park
Seung-Hwan
SH
D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000187:drug effects; D002633:Chemotaxis; D002953:Citrinin / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005407:Flagella / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D016936:Gram-Positive Endospore-Forming Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D009183:Mycotoxins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010407:Penicillium / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D009183:Mycotoxins; D002953:Citrinin