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Journal of Medical Microbiology logo Journal of Medical Microbiology

Volume 72, Issue 4

The CpxRA two-component system represses gene expression of the heat-labile toxin of enterotoxigenic No Access

Abstract

Enterotoxigenic (ETEC) strains produce at least one of two types of enterotoxins: the heat-labile (LT) and heat-stable (ST) toxins, which are responsible for the watery secretory diarrhoea that is a hallmark of the human ETEC infection. One regulatory system that controls the transcription of virulence genes in pathogenic bacteria is the CpxRA two-component system (TCS). We reported that the bicistronic operon, which encodes for the A and B subunits of LT, was repressed for the CpxRA TCS by direct binding of CpxR-P from −12 to +6 bp with respect to the transcription start site of . Moreover, the Cpx-response activation down-regulated the transcription of genes, and this negative effect was CpxRA-dependent. Our data show that CpxRA TCS is a negative regulator of the LT, one of the main virulence determinants of ETEC.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): CpxRA , eltAB , ETEC and heat-labile toxin
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Fondo de Investigación en Salud (FIS)-IMSS (Award FIS/IMSS/PROT/G18/1821)
    • Principle Award Recipient: MiguelA. Ares
© 2023 The Authors
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/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001682
2023-04-12
2025-01-13
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/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001682
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The CpxRA two-component system represses gene expression of the heat-labile toxin of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli
J. Med. Microbiol. 72, 001682 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001682
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001682
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001682
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