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Volume 152, Issue 6

Deletion of the gene, encoding the subunit of RNA polymerase, results in pleiotropic surface-related phenotypes in Free

Abstract

The subunit, the smallest subunit of bacterial RNA polymerase, is known to be involved in maintaining the conformation of the ′ subunit and aiding its recruitment to the rest of the core enzyme assembly in . It has recently been shown in , by creating a deletion mutation of the gene encoding , that the physiological role of the subunit also includes providing physical protection to ′. Interestingly, the mutant had altered colony morphology. This paper demonstrates that the mutant mycobacterium has pleiotropic phenotypes including reduced sliding motility and defective biofilm formation. Analysis of the spatial arrangement of biofilms by electron microscopy suggests that the altered phenotype of the mutant arises from a deficiency in generation of extracellular matrix. Complementation of the mutant strain with a copy of the wild-type gene integrated in the bacterial chromosome restored both sliding motility and biofilm formation to the wild-type state, unequivocally proving the role of in the characteristics observed for the mutant bacterium. Analysis of the cell wall composition demonstrated that the mutant bacterium had an identical glycopeptidolipid profile to the wild-type, but failed to synthesize the short-chain mycolic acids characteristic of biofilm growth in .

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Revised:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): GPL, glycopeptidolipid , RNAP, RNA polymerase and SEM, scanning electron microscopy
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2006-06-01
2024-04-25
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Deletion of the rpoZ gene, encoding the ω subunit of RNA polymerase, results in pleiotropic surface-related phenotypes in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Microbiology 152, 1741 (2006); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.28879-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.28879-0
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