title: Listeria monocytogenes10403S Arginine Repressor ArgR Finely Tunes Arginine Metabolism Regulation under Acidic Conditions.
abstract: Listeria monocytogenesis able to colonize human and animal intestinal tracts and to subsequently cross the intestinal barrier, causing systemic infection. For successful establishment of infection,L. monocytogenesmust survive the low pH environment of the stomach.L. monocytogenesencodes a functional ArgR, a transcriptional regulator belonging to the ArgR/AhrC arginine repressor family. We aimed at clarifying the specific functions of ArgR in arginine metabolism regulation, and more importantly, in acid tolerance ofL. monocytogenes. We showed that ArgR in the presence of 10 mM arginine represses transcription and expression of theargGHandargCJBDFoperons, indicating thatL. monocytogenesArgR plays the classical role of ArgR/AhrC family proteins in feedback inhibition of the arginine biosynthetic pathway. Notably, transcription and expression ofarcA(encoding arginine deiminase) andsigB(encoding an alternative sigma factor B) were also markedly repressed by ArgR when bacteria were exposed to pH 5.5 in the absence of arginine. However, addition of arginine enabled ArgR to derepress the transcription and expression of these two genes. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that ArgR binds to the putative ARG boxes in the promoter regions ofargC, argG, arcA, andsigB. Reporter gene analysis withgfpunder control of theargGpromoter demonstrated that ArgR was able to activate theargGpromoter. Unexpectedly, deletion ofargRsignificantly increased bacterial survival in BHI medium adjusted to pH 3.5 with lactic acid. We conclude that this phenomenon is due to activation ofarcAandsigB. Collectively, our results show thatL. monocytogenesArgR finely tunes arginine metabolism through negative transcriptional regulation of the arginine biosynthetic operons and of the catabolicarcAgene in an arginine-independent manner during lactic acid-induced acid stress. ArgR also appears to activate catabolism as well assigBtranscription by anti-repression in an arginine-dependent way.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Changyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Zhimei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Yongchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Tiantian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Zhongwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F UniversityLin'an, China; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Zhejiang UniversityHangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Weihuan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, China-Australia Joint-Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Animal Health Inspection & Internet Technology, Zhejiang A&F University Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Houhui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Song
keywords: ArgR; Listeria monocytogenes; acid tolerance; arginine repressor; regulation