Increasing evidence shows that protein lysine acetylation is involved in almost every aspect of cellular physiology in bacteria. Yersinia pestis is a flea-borne pathogen responsible for millions of human deaths in three global pandemics. However, the functional role of lysine acetylation in this pathogen remains unclear. Here, we found more acetylated proteins and a higher degree of acetylation in Y. pestis grown under mammalian host (Mh) conditions than under flea vector (Fv) conditions, suggesting that protein acetylation could significantly change during fleabite transmission. Comparative acetylome analysis of mutants of YfiQ and CobB, the major acetyltransferase and deacetylase of Y. pestis, respectively, identified 23 YfiQ-dependent and 315 CobB-dependent acetylated proteins. Further results demonstrated that acetylation of Lys73 of the SlyA protein, a MarR-family transcriptional regulator, inhibits its binding to the promoter of target genes, including hmsT that encodes diguanylate cyclase responsible for the synthesis of c-di-GMP, and significantly enhances biofilm formation of Y. pestis. Our study presents the first extensive acetylome data of Y. pestis and a critical resource for the functional study of lysine acetylation in this pathogen. IMPORTANCE Yersinia pestis is the etiological agent of plague, historically responsible for three global pandemics. The 2017 plague epidemic in Madagascar was a reminder that Y. pestis remains a real threat in many parts of the world. Plague is a zoonotic disease that primarily infects rodents via fleabite, and transmission of Y. pestis from infected fleas to mammals requires rapid adaptive responses to adverse host environments to establish infection. Our study provides the first global profiling of lysine acetylation derived from mass spectrometry analysis in Y. pestis. Our data set can serve as a critical resource for the functional study of lysine acetylation in Y. pestis and provides new molecular insight into the physiological role of lysine acetylation in proteins. More importantly, we found that acetylation of Lys73 of SlyA significantly promotes biofilm formation of Y. pestis, indicating that bacteria can use lysine acetylation to fine-tune the expression of genes to improve adaptation.
Keywords: Yersinia pestis; biofilms; lysine acetylation; mass spectrometry (MS); posttranslational modifications (PTMs).