title: Transcriptome of the quorum-sensing signal-degrading Rhodococcus erythropolis responds differentially to virulent and avirulent Pectobacterium atrosepticum.
abstract: Social bacteria use chemical communication to coordinate and synchronize gene expression via the quorum-sensing (QS) regulatory pathway. In Pectobacterium, a causative agent of the blackleg and soft-rot diseases on potato plants and tubers, expression of the virulence factors is collectively controlled by the QS-signals N-acylhomoserine lactones (NAHLs). Several soil bacteria, such as the actinobacterium Rhodococcus erythropolis, are able to degrade NAHLs, hence quench the chemical communication and virulence of Pectobacterium. Here, next-generation sequencing was used to investigate structural and functional genomics of the NAHL-degrading R. erythropolis strain R138. The R. erythropolis R138 genome (6.7 Mbp) contained a single circular chromosome, one linear (250 kbp) and one circular (84 kbp) plasmid. Growth of R. erythropolis and P. atrosepticum was not altered in mixed-cultures as compared with monocultures on potato tuber slices. HiSeq-transcriptomics revealed that no R. erythropolis genes were differentially expressed when R. erythropolis was cultivated in the presence vs absence of the avirulent P. atrosepticum mutant expI, which is defective for QS-signal synthesis. By contrast 50 genes (<1% of the R. erythropolis genome) were differentially expressed when R. erythropolis was cultivated in the presence vs absence of the NAHL-producing virulent P. atrosepticum. Among them, quantitative real-time reverse-transcriptase-PCR confirmed that the expression of some alkyl-sulfatase genes decreased in the presence of a virulent P. atrosepticum, as well as deprivation of organic sulfur such as methionine, which is a key precursor in the synthesis of NAHL by P. atrosepticum.
authors.affiliation: Institut des Sciences du Végétal, UPR2355, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Saclay Plant Sciences, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kwasiborski
authors.affiliation: Institut des Sciences du Végétal, UPR2355, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Saclay Plant Sciences, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mondy
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: T-M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology Signals and Microenvironment (LMSM), Normandy University, IRIB & EA 4312 University of Rouen, IUT Evreux, Evreux, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barbey
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: K-G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Comité Nord Plant de Pomme de Terre (CNPPT), Semences, Innovation, Protection Recherche et Environnement (SIPRE), Achicourt, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beury-Cirou
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology Signals and Microenvironment (LMSM), Normandy University, IRIB & EA 4312 University of Rouen, IUT Evreux, Evreux, France.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Latour
authors.affiliation: Institut des Sciences du Végétal, UPR2355, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Saclay Plant Sciences, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faure
mesh_terms: D054742:Acyl-Butyrolactones / Q000378:metabolism; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D044043:Pectobacterium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D053038:Quorum Sensing; D012240:Rhodococcus / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000382:microbiology; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D054742:Acyl-Butyrolactones; D004269:DNA, Bacterial