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Volume 155, Issue 5

Regulation of the type I protein secretion system by the MisR/MisS two-component system in Free

Abstract

, an obligate human pathogen, remains a leading cause of meningitis and fatal sepsis. Meningococci are known to secrete a family of proteins, such as FrpC, with sequence similarity to the repeat-in-toxin (RTX) proteins via the type I secretion system. The meningococcal type I secretion proteins are encoded at two distant genetic loci, () and / (/), and are separated from the RTX toxin-like substrates. We have characterized the promoter elements of both and by primer extension and reporter fusions and revealed the growth phase-dependent upregulation of both genes. In addition, we showed that the MisR/MisS two-component system negatively regulates the expression of and /. Direct binding of MisR to and promoters was demonstrated by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), and DNase I protection assays identified MisR binding sites overlapping the promoter elements. Direct repression of transcription by MisR was supported by transcription assays. Mutations in the MisR/S system affected, but did not eliminate, the growth phase-dependent upregulation of , suggesting additional regulatory mechanisms. Increased secretion of RTX toxin-like proteins was detected in the cell-free media from mutant cultures, indicating that the amounts of extracellular RTX toxin-like proteins are, in part, controlled by the abundance of the type I secretion apparatus. This is, to our knowledge, the first example of a two-component system mediating secretion of cytotoxin family proteins by controlling expression of the type I secretion proteins.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Revised:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): EMSA, electrophoretic mobility shift assay , IHF, integration host factor , qRT-PCR, quantitative real-time RT-PCR and RTX, repeat-in-toxin
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2009-05-01
2024-04-18
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Regulation of the type I protein secretion system by the MisR/MisS two-component system in Neisseria meningitidis
Microbiology 155, 1588 (2009); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.023945-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.023945-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.023945-0
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