The Streptococcus mutans serine/threonine kinase, PknB, regulates competence development, bacteriocin production, and cell wall metabolism.
Bacteria can detect, transmit, and react to signals from the outside world by using two-component systems (TCS) and serine-threonine kinases and phosphatases. Streptococcus mutans contains one serine-threonine kinase, encoded by pknB. A gene encoding a serine-threonine phosphatase, pppL, is located upstream of pknB. In this study, the phenotypes of pknB and pppL single mutants and a pknB pppL double mutant were characterized. All mutants exhibited a reduction in genetic transformability and biofilm formation, showed abnormal cell shapes, grew slower than the wild-type strain in several complex media, and exhibited reduced acid tolerance. The mutants had reduced cariogenic capacity but no significant defects in colonization in a rat caries model. Whole-genome transcriptome analysis revealed that a pknB mutant showed reduced expression of genes involved in bacteriocin production and genetic competence. Among the genes that were differentially regulated in the pknB mutant, several were likely to be involved in cell wall metabolism. One such gene, SMU.2146c, and two genes encoding bacteriocins were shown to also be downregulated in a vicK mutant, which encodes a sensor kinase involved in the response to oxidative stress. Collectively, the results lead us to speculate that PknB may modulate the activity of the two-component signal transduction systems VicKR and ComDE. Real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) showed that genes downregulated in the pknB mutant were upregulated in the pppL mutant, indicating that PppL serves to counteract PknB.
Institute of Oral Biology, University of Zurich, Plattenstrasse 11, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.
Liliana Danusia
LD
Banu
Georg
G
Conrads
Hubert
H
Rehrauer
Haitham
H
Hussain
Elaine
E
Allan
Jan R
JR
van der Ploeg
D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D001430:Bacteriocins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism*; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000382:microbiology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D017353:Gene Deletion; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010749:Phosphoprotein Phosphatases / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D013295:Streptococcus mutans / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D014169:Transformation, Bacterial
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001430:Bacteriocins; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D010749:Phosphoprotein Phosphatases