The type III protein secretion system contributes to Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri biofilm formation

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Chris Gehring¹  Claudius Marondedze¹  Ludivine Thomas¹  Germán G Sgro²  Cecilia G Garofalo²  Florencia A Ficarra²  Tamara Zimaro²  Jorgelina Ottado²  Natalia Gottig² 

[1] Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, 23955-6900, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia;Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBR-CONICET) and Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario Ocampo y Esmeralda, 2000, Rosario, Argentina;

关键词: Xanthomonas citri;    Biofilm;    T3SS;    Proteomics;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2180-14-96

 received in 2013-12-10, accepted in 2014-04-09,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSeveral bacterial plant pathogens colonize their hosts through the secretion of effector proteins by a Type III protein secretion system (T3SS). The role of T3SS in bacterial pathogenesis is well established but whether this system is involved in multicellular processes, such as bacterial biofilm formation has not been elucidated. Here, the phytopathogen Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (X. citri) was used as a model to gain further insights about the role of the T3SS in biofilm formation.ResultsThe capacity of biofilm formation of different X. citri T3SS mutants was compared to the wild type strain and it was observed that this secretion system was necessary for this process. Moreover, the T3SS mutants adhered proficiently to leaf surfaces but were impaired in leaf-associated growth. A proteomic study of biofilm cells showed that the lack of the T3SS causes changes in the expression of proteins involved in metabolic processes, energy generation, exopolysaccharide (EPS) production and bacterial motility as well as outer membrane proteins. Furthermore, EPS production and bacterial motility were also altered in the T3SS mutants.ConclusionsOur results indicate a novel role for T3SS in X. citri in the modulation of biofilm formation. Since this process increases X. citri virulence, this study reveals new functions of T3SS in pathogenesis.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Zimaro et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. 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 credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.