1. Cyclic di-GMP signalling in the virulence and environmental adaptation of Xanthomonas campestris.
- Author
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Ryan, Robert P., Fouhy, Yvonne, Lucey, Jean F., Jiang, Bo-Le, He, Yong-Qiang, Feng, Jia-Xun, Tang, Ji-Liang, and Dow, J. Maxwell
- Subjects
CYCLIC guanylic acid ,SECOND messengers (Biochemistry) ,XANTHOMONAS campestris ,PHYTOPATHOGENIC bacteria ,MICROBIAL virulence ,CELL physiology ,BIOMOLECULES ,MOLECULAR microbiology - Abstract
Cyclic di-GMP is a second messenger with a role in regulation of a range of cellular functions in diverse bacteria including the virulence of pathogens. Cellular levels of cyclic di-GMP are controlled through synthesis, catalysed by the GGDEF protein domain, and degradation by EAL or HD-GYP domains. Here we report a comprehensive study of cyclic di-GMP signalling in bacterial disease in which we examine the contribution of all proteins with GGDEF, EAL or HD-GYP domains to virulence and virulence factor production in the phytopathogen Xanthomonas campestris pathovar campestris ( Xcc). Genes with significant roles in virulence to plants included those encoding proteins whose probable function is in cyclic-di-GMP synthesis as well as others (including the HD-GYP domain regulator RpfG) implicated in cyclic di-GMP degradation. Furthermore, RpfG controlled expression of a subset of these genes. A partially overlapping set of elements controlled the production of virulence factors in vitro. Other GGDEF-EAL domain proteins had no effect on virulence factor synthesis but did influence motility. These findings indicate the existence of a regulatory network that may allow Xcc to integrate information from diverse environmental inputs to modulate virulence factor synthesis as well as of cyclic di-GMP signalling systems dedicated to other specific tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
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