In:
Journal of Bacteriology, American Society for Microbiology, Vol. 188, No. 4 ( 2006-02-15), p. 1381-1388
Kurzfassung:
Yersinia pestis is an important human pathogen that is maintained in flea-rodent enzootic cycles in many parts of the world. During its life cycle, Y. pestis senses host-specific environmental cues such as temperature and regulates gene expression appropriately to adapt to the insect or mammalian host. For example, Y. pestis synthesizes different forms of lipid A when grown at temperatures corresponding to the in vivo environments of the mammalian host and the flea vector. At 37°C, tetra-acylated lipid A is the major form; but at 26°C or below, hexa-acylated lipid A predominates. In this study, we show that the Y. pestis msbB ( lpxM ) and lpxP homologs encode the acyltransferases that add C 12 and C 16:1 groups, respectively, to lipid IV A to generate the hexa-acylated form, and that their expression is upregulated at 21°C in vitro and in the flea midgut. A Y. pestis ΔmsbB ΔlpxP double mutant that did not produce hexa-acylated lipid A was more sensitive to cecropin A, but not to polymyxin B. This mutant was able to infect and block fleas as well as the parental wild-type strain, indicating that the low-temperature-dependent change to hexa-acylated lipid A synthesis is not required for survival in the flea gut.
Materialart:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
0021-9193
,
1098-5530
DOI:
10.1128/JB.188.4.1381-1388.2006
Sprache:
Englisch
Verlag:
American Society for Microbiology
Publikationsdatum:
2006
ZDB Id:
1481988-0
SSG:
12