| Autor: |
Truc Thanh Luong, Minh Tan Nguyen, Yi-Wei Chen, Chungyu Chang, Ju Huck Lee, Manuel Wittchen, HyLam Ton-That, Melissa Cruz, Danielle A. Garsin, Asis Das, Andreas Tauch, Hung Ton-That |
| Jazyk: |
angličtina |
| Rok vydání: |
2021 |
| Předmět: |
|
| Zdroj: |
Microorganisms, Vol 9, Iss 2, p 389 (2021) |
| Druh dokumentu: |
article |
| ISSN: |
2076-2607 |
| DOI: |
10.3390/microorganisms9020389 |
| Popis: |
Controlled RNA degradation is a crucial process in bacterial cell biology for maintaining proper transcriptome homeostasis and adaptation to changing environments. mRNA turnover in many Gram-positive bacteria involves a specialized ribonuclease called RNase J (RnJ). To date, however, nothing is known about this process in the diphtheria-causative pathogen Corynebacterium diphtheriae, nor is known the identity of this ribonuclease in this organism. Here, we report that C. diphtheriae DIP1463 encodes a predicted RnJ homolog, comprised of a conserved N-terminal β-lactamase domain, followed by β-CASP and C-terminal domains. A recombinant protein encompassing the β-lactamase domain alone displays 5′-exoribonuclease activity, which is abolished by alanine-substitution of the conserved catalytic residues His186 and His188. Intriguingly, deletion of DIP1463/rnj in C. diphtheriae reduces bacterial growth and generates cell shape abnormality with markedly augmented cell width. Comparative RNA-seq analysis revealed that RnJ controls a large regulon encoding many factors predicted to be involved in biosynthesis, regulation, transport, and iron acquisition. One upregulated gene in the ∆rnj mutant is ftsH, coding for a membrane protease (FtsH) involved in cell division, whose overexpression in the wild-type strain also caused cell-width augmentation. Critically, the ∆rnj mutant is severely attenuated in virulence in a Caenorhabditis elegans model of infection, while the FtsH-overexpressing and toxin-less strains exhibit full virulence as the wild-type strain. Evidently, RNase J is a key ribonuclease in C. diphtheriae that post-transcriptionally influences the expression of numerous factors vital to corynebacterial cell physiology and virulence. Our findings have significant implications for basic biological processes and mechanisms of corynebacterial pathogenesis. |
| Databáze: |
Directory of Open Access Journals |
| Externí odkaz: |
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