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The quorum sensing system of Yersinia enterocolitica 8081 regulates swimming motility, host cell attachment, and virulence plasmid maintenance

Ng, Yen-Kuan; Grasso, Marco; Wright, Victoria; Garcia, Vanina; Williams, Paul; Atkinson, Steve

The quorum sensing system of Yersinia enterocolitica 8081 regulates swimming motility, host cell attachment, and virulence plasmid maintenance Thumbnail


Authors

Yen-Kuan Ng

Marco Grasso

Victoria Wright

PAUL WILLIAMS PAUL.WILLIAMS@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Molecular Microbiology



Abstract

Although Yersinia enterocolitica genomes are highly heterogeneous, they contain a conserved N-acylhomoserine lactone-dependent (AHL) quorum sensing (QS) system consisting of the luxR and luxI orthologs yenR and yenI respectively. Certain hypervirulent strains also contain a putative orphan luxR gene, ycoR, that is not linked to an AHL synthase. To explore the contribution of yenR/yenI/ycoR to QS-dependent phenotypes in Yersinia enterocolitica strain 8081, single and multiple mutants were constructed. AHL profiling identified N-(3-oxohexanoyl) homoserine lactone, N-hexanoylhomoserine lactone, and N-(3-oxoseptanoyl) homoserine lactone as the most abundant. The AHL profiles of the yenR, ycoR and yenR/ycoR mutants were similar to the parent suggesting that the two LuxR homologues do not regulate AHL production while the yenI mutants were AHL-negative. A role for QS in swimming motility and cell attachment was demonstrated. Down-regulation of the virulence plasmid partition gene, spyA, in yenI and yenI/yenR/ycoR mutants is consistent with the greater loss of the Y. enterocolitica pYVe virulence plasmid in the yenI mutant during serial passage at 37 C but not at 22 C. A role for QS-regulated spyA in virulence plasmid maintenance is suggested.

Citation

Ng, Y., Grasso, M., Wright, V., Garcia, V., Williams, P., & Atkinson, S. (2018). The quorum sensing system of Yersinia enterocolitica 8081 regulates swimming motility, host cell attachment, and virulence plasmid maintenance. Genes, 9(6), Article 307. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9060307

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 12, 2018
Publication Date Jun 20, 2018
Deposit Date Jun 19, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Genes
Electronic ISSN 2073-4425
Publisher MDPI
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 9
Issue 6
Article Number 307
DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9060307
Keywords Yersinia enterocolitica; Quorum sensing; LuxR; N-acylhomoserine lactones; Motility; Cell attachment; Virulence plasmid maintenance
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/940169
Publisher URL http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/9/6/307

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