title: A new locus in Cytophaga hutchinsonii involved in colony spreading on agar surfaces and individual cell gliding.
abstract: Cytophaga hutchinsonii glides rapidly over surfaces by an unknown mechanism without flagella and type IV pili and it can degrade crystalline cellulose efficiently by a novel mechanism. Tn4351 transposon mutagenesis was used to identify a new gene, CHU_1798, essential for colony spreading on agar surfaces. Further study showed that disruption of CHU_1798 caused non-spreading colonies on both soft and hard agar surfaces and individual cells were partially deficient in gliding on glass surfaces. The CHU_1798 mutant could digest cellulose as long as the cells were in direct contact with the cellulose, but it could not degrade cellulose powder buried in the agar plate. Scanning electron microscopy showed that individual mutant cells arranged irregularly on the cellulose fiber surface at an early stage of incubation, but later showed a regular parallel arrangement when there were plenty of cells and could spread along the cellulose fibers. These results suggest that CHU_1798 plays an important role in the motility of C. hutchinsonii and provide insight into the relation between cell motility and cellulose degradation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Cong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Weican
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, School of Life Science, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China luxuemei_email2@163.com.
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar; D002482:Cellulose / Q000378:metabolism; D003589:Cytophaga / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D009068:Movement; D016296:Mutagenesis; D009154:Mutation
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D000362:Agar; D002482:Cellulose
keywords: Cytophaga hutchinsonii; Tn4351 transposon; cell motility; cellulose degradation; colony spreading; gliding