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Journal article
A competence-regulated toxin-antitoxin system in Haemophilus influenzae
PloS one, v 15(1), pp e0217255-e0217255
2020
PMID: 31931516
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Natural competence allows bacteria to respond to environmental and nutritional cues by taking up free DNA from their surroundings, thus gaining both nutrients and genetic information. In the Gram-negative bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, the genes needed for DNA uptake are induced by the CRP and Sxy transcription factors in response to lack of preferred carbon sources and nucleotide precursors. Here we show that one of these genes, HI0659, encodes the antitoxin of a competence-regulated toxin-antitoxin operon ('toxTA'), likely acquired by horizontal gene transfer from a Streptococcus species. Deletion of the putative toxin (HI0660) restores uptake to the antitoxin mutant. The full toxTA operon was present in only 17 of the 181 strains we examined; complete deletion was seen in 22 strains and deletions removing parts of the toxin gene in 142 others. In addition to the expected Sxy- and CRP-dependent-competence promoter, HI0659/660 transcript analysis using RNA-seq identified an internal antitoxin-repressed promoter whose transcription starts within toxT and will yield nonfunctional protein. We propose that the most likely effect of unopposed toxin expression is non-specific cleavage of mRNAs and arrest or death of competent cells in the culture. Although the high frequency of toxT and toxTA deletions suggests that this competence-regulated toxin-antitoxin system may be mildly deleterious, it could also facilitate downregulation of protein synthesis and recycling of nucleotides under starvation conditions. Although our analyses were focused on the effects of toxTA, the RNA-seq dataset will be a useful resource for further investigations into competence regulation.
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Details
- Title
- A competence-regulated toxin-antitoxin system in Haemophilus influenzae
- Creators
- Hailey Findlay Black - Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, CanadaScott Mastromatteo - University of British ColumbiaSunita Sinha - University of British ColumbiaRachel L Ehrlich - Drexel UniversityCorey Nislow - University of British ColumbiaJoshua Chang Mell - Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Center for Genomic Sciences, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of AmericaRosemary J Redfield - University of British Columbia
- Publication Details
- PloS one, v 15(1), pp e0217255-e0217255
- Publisher
- Public LIbrary of Science (PLOS)
- Grant note
- F32 AI084427 / NIAID NIH HHS R01 DC002148 / NIDCD NIH HHS CIHR
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Microbiology and Immunology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000534352500002
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85077785870
- Other Identifier
- 991019168448504721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Microbiology