Phenotypic and transcriptional analysis of the osmotic regulator OmpR in Yersinia pestis

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Xinxiang Huang¹  Yiquan Zhang²  Dongsheng Zhou²  Ruifu Yang²  Yafang Tan²  Zhaobiao Guo²  He Gao²  Yanping Han²  Lin Yang³  Xia Liu³ 

[1] Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu University School of Medical Technology, 212013, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, PR China;State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, 100071, Beijing, PR China;State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, 100071, Beijing, PR China;Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Jiangsu University School of Medical Technology, 212013, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, PR China;

关键词: High Osmolarity;    Medium Osmolarity;    Primer Extension Product;    Minimum Essential Medium Medium;    Pathogenic Yersinia;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2180-11-39

 received in 2010-06-11, accepted in 2011-02-23,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe osmotic regulator OmpR in Escherichia coli regulates differentially the expression of major porin proteins OmpF and OmpC. In Yersinia enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis, OmpR is required for both virulence and survival within macrophages. However, the phenotypic and regulatory roles of OmpR in Y. pestis are not yet fully understood.ResultsY. pestis OmpR is involved in building resistance against phagocytosis and controls the adaptation to various stressful conditions met in macrophages. The ompR mutation likely did not affect the virulence of Y. pestis strain 201 that was a human-avirulent enzootic strain. The microarray-based comparative transcriptome analysis disclosed a set of 224 genes whose expressions were affected by the ompR mutation, indicating the global regulatory role of OmpR in Y. pestis. Real-time RT-PCR or lacZ fusion reporter assay further validated 16 OmpR-dependent genes, for which OmpR consensus-like sequences were found within their upstream DNA regions. ompC, F, X, and R were up-regulated dramatically with the increase of medium osmolarity, which was mediated by OmpR occupying the target promoter regions in a tandem manner.ConclusionOmpR contributes to the resistance against phagocytosis or survival within macrophages, which is conserved in the pathogenic yersiniae. Y. pestis OmpR regulates ompC, F, X, and R directly through OmpR-promoter DNA association. There is an inducible expressions of the pore-forming proteins OmpF, C, and × at high osmolarity in Y. pestis, in contrast to the reciprocal regulation of them in E. coli. The main difference is that ompF expression is not repressed at high osmolarity in Y. pestis, which is likely due to the absence of a promoter-distal OmpR-binding site for ompF.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Gao et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.