%0 Journal Article %A de Oliveira, Naira Elane Moreira %A Abranches, Jaqueline %A Gaca, Anthony O. %A Laport, Marinella Silva %A Damaso, Clarissa R. %A Bastos, Maria do Carmo de Freire %A Lemos, José A. %A Giambiagi-deMarval, Marcia %T clpB, a class III heat-shock gene regulated by CtsR, is involved in thermotolerance and virulence of Enterococcus faecalis %D 2011 %J Microbiology, %V 157 %N 3 %P 656-665 %@ 1465-2080 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.041897-0 %K qRT-PCR, quantitative real-time reverse-transcriptase PCR %I Microbiology Society, %X Here, we transcriptionally and phenotypically characterized the clpB gene from Enterococcus faecalis. Northern blot analysis identified a monocistronic mRNA strongly induced at 48 and 50 °C. In silico analysis identified that the clpB gene encodes a protein of 868 aa with a predicted molecular mass of approximately 98 kDa, presenting two conserved ATP-binding domains. Sequence analysis also identified a CtsR-binding box upstream of the putative −10 sequence, and inactivation of the ctsR gene resulted in an approximately 2-log increase in clpB mRNA expression, confirming ClpB as a member of the CtsR regulon. While expression of clpB was induced by heat stress, a ΔclpB strain grew relatively well under many different stressful conditions, including elevated temperatures. However, expression of ClpB appears to play a major role in induced thermotolerance and in pathogenesis, as assessed by using the Galleria mellonella virulence model. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.041897-0