PtrA regulates prodigiosin synthesis and biological functions in Serratia marcescens FZSF02

Junjie Lin; Yanshuang Yu; Ke Zhao; Jie Zhao; Christopher Rensing; Jichen Chen; Xianbo Jia

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1240102

PtrA regulates prodigiosin synthesis and biological functions in Serratia marcescens FZSF02

Front Microbiol. 2023 Sep 15:14:1240102. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1240102. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Junjie Lin^{1

2}, Yanshuang Yu³, Ke Zhao³, Jie Zhao³, Christopher Rensing³, Jichen Chen¹, Xianbo Jia¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Soil and Fertilizer, Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Fujian Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer, Fuzhou, China.
² College of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
³ College of Resources and Environment, Institute of Environmental Microbiology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.

Abstract

Serratia marcescens is a gram-negative bacterium that is able to produce many secondary metabolites, such as the prominent red pigment prodigiosin (PG). In this work, a ptrA-disrupted mutant strain with reduced PG production was selected from Tn5 transposon mutants. RT-qPCR results indicated that ptrA promoted elevated transcription of the pig gene cluster in S. marcescens FZSF02. Furthermore, we found that ptrA also controls several other important biological functions of S. marcescens, including swimming and swarming motilities, biofilm formation, hemolytic activity, and stress tolerance. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that ptrA is a PG synthesis-promoting factor in S. marcescens and provides a brief understanding of the regulatory mechanism of ptrA in S. marcescens cell motility and hemolytic activity.

Keywords: PtrA; Serratia marcescens; cell motility; prodigiosin synthesis; stress tolerance.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Exploration Program of Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ZYTS202217), Scientific Research in the Public Interest of Fujian Province (2020R1025003, 2021R1025002), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (2021J01480), Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (31800068), Special Program for Extension Research of National Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (AGY2018-1), and Science and Technology Innovation Team Program of Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CXTD2021002-3).