The response regulator PhoP negatively regulates Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia pestis biofilms.
A few Yersinia pseudotuberculosis strains form biofilms on the head of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, but numerous others do not. We show that a widely used Y. pseudotuberculosis strain, YPIII, is biofilm positive because of a mutation in phoP, which encodes the response regulator of a two-component system. For two wild-type Y. pseudotuberculosis that do not make biofilms on C. elegans, deletion of phoP was sufficient to produce robust biofilms. In Yersinia pestis, a phoP mutant made more extensive biofilms in vitro than did the wild type. Expression of HmsT, a diguanylate cyclase that positively regulates biofilms, is diminished in Y. pseudotuberculosis strains with functional PhoP.
Sun
Yi-Cheng
YC
Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, Program in Microbial Pathogenesis, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Koumoutsi
Alexandra
A
Darby
Creg
C
D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000382:microbiology; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D019761:Phosphorus-Oxygen Lyases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D015010:Yersinia pestis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D015011:Yersinia pseudotuberculosis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C061064:PhoP protein, Bacteria; D019761:Phosphorus-Oxygen Lyases; C060720:diguanylate cyclase