The FloR master regulator controls flotation,virulence and antibiotic production in Serratia sp. ATCC 39006 |
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| Authors: | Alex Quintero-Yanes Chin Mei Lee Rita Monson George Salmond |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Hopkins Building, Downing Site, Cambridge, CB2 1QW UK;2. Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Hopkins Building, Downing Site, Cambridge, CB2 1QW UK Faculty of Industrial Sciences and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Gambang, 26300 Malaysia |
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| Abstract: | Serratia sp. ATCC 39006 produces intracellular gas vesicles to enable upward flotation in water columns. It also uses flagellar rotation to swim through liquid and swarm across semi-solid surfaces. Flotation and motility can be co-regulated with production of a β-lactam antibiotic (carbapenem carboxylate) and a linear tripyrrole red antibiotic, prodigiosin. Production of gas vesicles, carbapenem and prodigiosin antibiotics, and motility are controlled by master transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators, including the SmaI/SmaR-based quorum sensing system and the mRNA binding protein, RsmA. Recently, the ribose operon repressor, RbsR, was also defined as a pleiotropic regulator of flotation and virulence factor elaboration in this strain. Here, we report the discovery of a new global regulator (FloR; a DeoR family transcription factor) that modulates flotation through control of gas vesicle morphogenesis. The floR mutation is highly pleiotropic, down-regulating production of gas vesicles, carbapenem and prodigiosin antibiotics, and infection in Caenorhabditis elegans, but up-regulating flagellar motility. Detailed proteomic analysis using TMT peptide labelling and LC–MS/MS revealed that FloR is a physiological master regulator that operates through subordinate pleiotropic regulators including Rap, RpoS, RsmA, PigU, PstS and PigT. |
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