RcsB regulation of the YfdX-mediated acid stress response in Klebsiella pneumoniae CG43S3

PLoS One. 2019 Feb 28;14(2):e0212909. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212909. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

In Klebsiella pneumoniae CG43S3, deletion of the response regulator gene rcsB reduced the capsular polysaccharide amount and survival on exposure to acid stress. A comparison of the pH 4.4-induced proteomes between CG43S3 and CG43S3ΔrcsB revealed numerous differentially expressed proteins and one of them, YfdX, which has recently been reported as a periplasmic protein, was absent in CG43S3ΔrcsB. Acid survival analysis was then conducted to determine its role in the acid stress response. Deletion of yfdX increased the sensitivity of K. pneumoniae CG43S3 to a pH of 2.5, and transforming the mutant with a plasmid carrying yfdX restored the acid resistance (AR) levels. In addition, the effect of yfdX deletion was cross-complemented by the expression of the periplasmic chaperone HdeA. Furthermore, the purified recombinant protein YfdX reduced the acid-induced protein aggregation, suggesting that YfdX as well as HdeA functions as a chaperone. The following promoter activity measurement revealed that rcsB deletion reduced the expression of yfdX after the bacteria were subjected to pH 4.4 adaptation. Western blot analysis also revealed that YfdX production was inhibited by rcsB deletion and only the plasmid expressing RcsB or the nonphosphorylated form of RcsB, RcsBD56A, could restore the YfdX production, and the RcsB-mediated complementation was no longer observed when the sensor kinase RcsD gene was deleted. In conclusion, this is the first study demonstrating that YfdX may be involved in the acid stress response as a periplasmic chaperone and that RcsB positively regulates the acid stress response partly through activation of yfdX expression. Moreover, the phosphorylation status of RcsB may affect the YfdX expression under acidic conditions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acids / metabolism
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism*
  • Gene Deletion
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
  • Genes, Bacterial
  • Genes, Regulator
  • Humans
  • Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / genetics*
  • Klebsiella pneumoniae / metabolism*
  • Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
  • Phosphorylation
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Stress, Physiological / genetics

Substances

  • Acids
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • RcsB protein, Bacteria

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from "Center For Intelligent Drug Systems and Smart Bio-devices (IDS2B)" from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the National Science Council (NSC100-2320-B-009-003-MY3), and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 103-2320-B-009-004, MOST 104-2320-B009-004-MY3), Taiwan, ROC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.