Temperature-responsive sensing regulates biocontrol factor expression in Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0.
In the plant-beneficial, root-colonizing strain Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0, the Gac/Rsm signal transduction pathway positively regulates the synthesis of biocontrol factors (mostly antifungal secondary metabolites) and contributes to oxidative stress response via the stress sigma factor RpoS. The backbone of this pathway consists of the GacS/GacA two-component system, which activates the expression of three small regulatory RNAs (RsmX, RsmY, RsmZ) and thereby counters translational repression exerted by the RsmA and RsmE proteins on target mRNAs encoding biocontrol factors. We found that the expression of typical biocontrol factors, that is, antibiotic compounds and hydrogen cyanide (involving the phlA and hcnA genes), was significantly lower at 35 degrees C than at 30 degrees C. The expression of the rpoS gene was affected in parallel. This temperature control depended on RetS, a sensor kinase acting as an antagonist of the GacS/GacA system. An additional sensor kinase, LadS, which activated the GacS/GacA system, apparently did not contribute to thermosensitivity. Mutations in gacS or gacA were epistatic to (that is, they overruled) mutations in retS or ladS for expression of the small RNAs RsmXYZ. These data are consistent with a model according to which RetS-GacS and LadS-GacS interactions shape the output of the Gac/Rsm pathway and the environmental temperature influences the RetS-GacS interaction in P. fluorescens CHA0.
Département de Microbiologie Fondamentale, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Bérénice
B
Humair
Nicolas
N
González
Dimitris
D
Mossialos
Cornelia
C
Reimmann
Dieter
D
Haas
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D019677:Artificial Gene Fusion; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006856:Hydrogen Cyanide / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D011551:Pseudomonas fluorescens / Q000502:physiology*; D012808:Sigma Factor / Q000096:biosynthesis; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D013696:Temperature; D001616:beta-Galactosidase
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000935:Antifungal Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D012808:Sigma Factor; C069567:sigma factor KatF protein, Bacteria; D006856:Hydrogen Cyanide; D001616:beta-Galactosidase