Mechanisms of peptide sex pheromone regulation of conjugation in Enterococcus faecalis

MicrobiologyOpen
Yuqing ChenGary M Dunny

Abstract

In many gram positive bacteria, horizontal transfer and virulence are regulated by peptide-mediated cell-cell signaling. The heptapeptide cCF10 (C) activates conjugative transfer of the Enterococcus faecalis plasmid pCF10, whereas the iCF10 (I) peptide inhibits transfer. Both peptides bind to the same domain of the master transcription regulator PrgX, a repressor of transcription of the prgQ operon encoding conjugation genes. We show that repression of prgQ by PrgX tetramers requires formation of a pCF10 DNA loop where each of two PrgX DNA-binding sites is occupied by a dimer. I binding to PrgX enhances prgQ repression, while C binding has the opposite effect. Previous models suggested that differential effects of these two peptides on the PrgX oligomerization state accounted for their distinct functions. Our new results demonstrate that both peptides have similar, high-binding affinity for PrgX, and that both peptides actually promote formation of PrgX tetramers with higher DNA-binding affinity than Apo-PrgX. We propose that differences in repression ability of PrgX/peptide complexes result from subtle differences in the structures of DNA-bound PrgX/peptide complexes. Changes in the induction state of a donor cell likely resul...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Oct 20, 2018·Nature Reviews. Microbiology·Jun-Hong Ch'ngKimberly A Kline
Apr 3, 2020·PLoS Pathogens·Amy J SterlingJames S G Dooley
Dec 6, 2017·The Journal of Biological Chemistry·Tiara G Pérez MoralesMichael J Federle
Mar 9, 2019·Microbiology Spectrum·Keith E Weaver
Aug 10, 2021·Journal of Bacteriology·Cydney N JohnsonAnushila Chatterjee

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
in vitro transcription
surface plasmon resonance
PCR
electrophoresis
footprinting
electrophoretic mobility shift
size exclusion chromatography

Software Mentioned

ImageJ
EMSA
Matlab

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