The LetA-RsmYZ-CsrA regulatory cascade, together with RpoS and PmrA, post-transcriptionally regulates stationary phase activation of Legionella pneumophila Icm/Dot effectors

Mol Microbiol. 2009 May;72(4):995-1010. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2009.06705.x. Epub 2009 Apr 28.

Abstract

Legionella pneumophila utilize the Icm/Dot type-IV secretion system to translocate effector proteins into host cells. Some of these effectors were shown before to be regulated at the transcriptional level by the PmrAB and CpxRA two-component systems. In addition, the stationary phase-related regulators LetA and CsrA, which are both members of the same post-transcriptional regulatory cascade, were shown to be involved in L. pneumophila virulence. In this report, we identified two small non-coding RNAs which are part of the LetA-CsrA regulatory cascade and three effector-encoding genes which are directly controlled by this regulatory system. We found that the small non-coding RNAs RsmY and RsmZ, were upregulated by LetA at stationary phase, and relieve the repression of CsrA from its target genes. The three effector-encoding genes were found to be post-transcriptionally upregulated at stationary phase and to contain CsrA regulatory elements that were found to be essential for their stationary phase activation. In addition, rsmY and rsmZ were found to be regulated by the RpoS sigma-factor and the csrA encoding gene was found to be regulated by PmrA. Our results demonstrate that L. pneumophila effectors are regulated at both the transcriptional and the post-transcriptional levels by a complicated regulatory network.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism*
  • Base Sequence
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*
  • Legionella pneumophila / genetics
  • Legionella pneumophila / metabolism*
  • Legionella pneumophila / pathogenicity
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional*
  • RNA, Bacterial / metabolism
  • RNA, Untranslated / metabolism
  • Repressor Proteins / genetics
  • Repressor Proteins / metabolism
  • Sigma Factor / genetics
  • Sigma Factor / metabolism
  • Transcription Initiation Site
  • Virulence

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • CcdA protein, Bacteria
  • CsrA protein, Legionella pneumophila
  • RNA, Bacterial
  • RNA, Untranslated
  • Repressor Proteins
  • Sigma Factor
  • pmrA protein, Bacteria
  • sigma factor KatF protein, Bacteria