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Volume 156, Issue 7

Two regulatory elements required for enhancing expression in grown but repressing its expression during mammalian infection Free

Abstract

During cycling between the tick vector and a mammal, the Lyme disease spirochaete must coordinate expression of outer-surface proteins (Osps) A and B to quickly respond to environmental changes. The pathogen abundantly produces OspA/B in the tick, but represses their expression during mammalian infection. This paper reports a regulatory structure, consisting of two sequences flanking the promoter, that is required for enhancing expression in grown , but repressing its expression during murine infection. Deletion or replacement of either the upstream or downstream sequence of the promoter caused a significant decrease in expression , but a dramatic increase during murine infection. Fusion of either sequence with the reporter promoter led to increased expression of an reporter gene , but a decrease in the murine host. Furthermore, simultaneous fusion of both sequences with the reporter promoter showed a synergistic effect in enhancing expression of the reporter , but repressing its expression during murine infection. Taken together, the results demonstrate that the regulatory structure functions oppositely in the two different environments and potentially provides with a molecular mechanism to quickly adapt to the distinct environments during its enzootic life cycle.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Revised:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): DR, direct repeat , Osp, outer-surface protein , qPCR, quantitative PCR , RT, reverse transcription and SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency
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/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.036608-0
2010-07-01
2024-04-18
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Two regulatory elements required for enhancing ospA expression in Borrelia burgdorferi grown in vitro but repressing its expression during mammalian infection
Microbiology 156, 2194 (2010); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.036608-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.036608-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.036608-0
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