Nutrient depletion may trigger the Yersinia pestis OmpR‐EnvZ regulatory system to promote flea‐borne plague transmission - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Molecular Microbiology Année : 2019

Nutrient depletion may trigger the Yersinia pestis OmpR‐EnvZ regulatory system to promote flea‐borne plague transmission

Résumé

The flea's lumen gut is a poorly documented environment where the agent of flea-borne plague, Yersinia pestis, must replicate to produce a transmissible infection. Here, we report that both the acidic pH and osmolarity of the lumen's contents display simple harmonic oscillations with different periods. Since an acidic pH and osmolarity are two of three known stimuli of the OmpR-EnvZ two-component system in bacteria, we investigated the role and function of this Y. pestis system in fleas. By monitoring the in vivo expression pattern of three OmpR-EnvZregulated genes, we concluded that the flea gut environment triggers OmpR-EnvZ. This activation was not, however, correlated with changes in pH and osmolarity but matched the pattern of nutrient depletion (the third known stimulus for OmpR-EnvZ). Lastly, we found that the OmpR-EnvZ and the OmpF porin are needed to produce the biofilm that ultimately obstructs the flea's gut and thus hastens the flea-borne transmission of plague. Taken as a whole, our data suggest that the flea gut is a complex, fluctuating environment in which Y. pestis senses nutrient depletion via OmpR-EnvZ. Once activated, the latter triggers a molecular program (including at least OmpF) that produces the biofilm required for efficient plague transmission.
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Dates et versions

hal-03514112 , version 1 (30-11-2023)

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Sébastien Bontemps­-Gallo, Marion Fernandez, Amélie Dewitte, Etienne Raphaël, Frank C Gherardini, et al.. Nutrient depletion may trigger the Yersinia pestis OmpR‐EnvZ regulatory system to promote flea‐borne plague transmission. Molecular Microbiology, 2019, 112 (5), pp.1471-1482. ⟨10.1111/mmi.14372⟩. ⟨hal-03514112⟩
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