A conserved two-component signal transduction system controls the response to phosphate starvation in Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003
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ABSTRACT: This work reports on the identification and molecular characterization of a two-component regulatory system (2CRS), encoded by phoRP in Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003, which controls the response to phosphate (Pi) starvation. The response regulator PhoP was shown to bind to the promoter region of pstSCAB, specifying a predicted Pi transporter system, as well as that of phoU, which specifies a putative Pi-responsive regulatory protein. This interaction is assumed to cause transcriptional activation under conditions of Pi limitation. The phoRP genes appear to be subject to positive auto-regulation, and with pstSCAB and phoU, represent the complete regulon controlled by the phoRP-encoded 2CRS in B. breve UCC2003. Determination of the minimal PhoP binding region combined with bioinformatic analysis revealed the probable recognition sequence of PhoP, designated here as the PHO box, which together with phoRP is conserved among many high GC-content Gram+ bacteria. The importance of the phoRP 2CRS in the response of B. breve to Pi starvation conditions was confirmed by generating a B. breve::phoP insertion mutant which exhibited decreased growth under phosphate-limiting conditions as compared to its parent strain UCC2003. In order to investigate differences in global gene expression upon growth of B. breve UCC2003 under low phosphate conditions compared to normal growing cells, DNA microarray experiments were performed in CDM. Total RNA was isolated from B. breve UCC2003 cultures under normal conditions and cultures grown under low phosphate conditions. Starvation experiments with wildtype and overexpression strains were performed in triplicate, while knockout array experiments where performed as single experiments and targets were confirmed with QRT-PCR.
ORGANISM(S): Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003
SUBMITTER: Aldert Zomer
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-34983 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
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