Rho-dependent transcriptional switches regulate the bacterial response to cold shock.

Binding of the bacterial Rho helicase to nascent transcripts triggers Rho-dependent transcription termination (RDTT) in response to cellular signals that modulate mRNA structure and accessibility of Rho utilization (Rut) sites. Despite the impact of temperature on RNA structure, RDTT was never linked to the bacterial response to temperature shifts. We show that Rho is a central player in the cold-shock response (CSR), challenging the current view that CSR is primarily a posttranscriptional program. We identify Rut sites in 5'-untranslated regions of key CSR genes/operons (cspA, cspB, cspG, and nsrR-rnr-yjfHI) that trigger premature RDTT at 37°C but not at 15°C. High concentrations of RNA chaperone CspA or nucleotide changes in the cspA mRNA leader reduce RDTT efficiency, revealing how RNA restructuring directs Rho to activate CSR genes during the cold shock and to silence them during cold acclimation. These findings establish a paradigm for how RNA thermosensors can modulate gene expression.

Pervasive transcription enhances the accessibility of H-NS-silenced promoters and generates bistability in Salmonella virulence gene expression.

In Escherichia coli and Salmonella, many genes silenced by the nucleoid structuring protein H-NS are activated upon inhibiting Rho-dependent transcription termination. This response is poorly understood and difficult to reconcile with the view that H-NS acts mainly by blocking transcription initiation. Here we have analyzed the basis for the up-regulation of H-NS-silenced Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1) in cells depleted of Rho-cofactor NusG. Evidence from genetic experiments, semiquantitative 5' rapid amplification of complementary DNA ends sequencing (5' RACE-Seq), and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-Seq) shows that transcription originating from spurious antisense promoters, when not stopped by Rho, elongates into a H-NS-bound regulatory region of SPI-1, displacing H-NS and rendering the DNA accessible to the master regulator HilD. In turn, HilD's ability to activate its own transcription triggers a positive feedback loop that results in transcriptional activation of the entire SPI-1. Significantly, single-cell analyses revealed that this mechanism is largely responsible for the coexistence of two subpopulations of cells that either express or do not express SPI-1 genes. We propose that cell-to-cell differences produced by stochastic spurious transcription, combined with feedback loops that perpetuate the activated state, can generate bimodal gene expression patterns in bacterial populations.

6S RNA-Dependent Susceptibility to RNA Polymerase Inhibitors.

Bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs) contribute to a variety of regulatory mechanisms that modulate a wide range of pathways, including metabolism, virulence, and antibiotic resistance. We investigated the involvement of sRNAs in rifampicin resistance in the opportunistic pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Using a competition assay with an sRNA mutant library, we identified 6S RNA as being required for protection against low concentrations of rifampicin, an RNA polymerase (RNAP) inhibitor. This effect applied to rifabutin and fidaxomicin, two other RNAP-targeting antibiotics. 6S RNA is highly conserved in bacteria, and its absence in two other major pathogens, Salmonella enterica and Clostridioides difficile, also impaired susceptibility to RNAP inhibitors. In S. aureus, 6S RNA is produced from an autonomous gene and accumulates in stationary phase. In contrast to what was reported for Escherichia coli, S. aureus 6S RNA does not appear to play a critical role in the transition from exponential to stationary phase but affects σB-regulated expression in prolonged stationary phase. Nevertheless, its protective effect against rifampicin is independent of alternative sigma factor σB activity. Our results suggest that 6S RNA helps maintain RNAP-σA integrity in S. aureus, which could in turn help bacteria withstand low concentrations of RNAP inhibitors.

NusG prevents transcriptional invasion of H-NS-silenced genes.

Evolutionarily conserved NusG protein enhances bacterial RNA polymerase processivity but can also promote transcription termination by binding to, and stimulating the activity of, Rho factor. Rho terminates transcription upon anchoring to cytidine-rich motifs, the so-called Rho utilization sites (Rut) in nascent RNA. Both NusG and Rho have been implicated in the silencing of horizontally-acquired A/T-rich DNA by nucleoid structuring protein H-NS. However, the relative roles of the two proteins in H-NS-mediated gene silencing remain incompletely defined. In the present study, a Salmonella strain carrying the nusG gene under the control of an arabinose-inducible repressor was used to assess the genome-wide response to NusG depletion. Results from two complementary approaches, i) screening lacZ protein fusions generated by random transposition and ii) transcriptomic analysis, converged to show that loss of NusG causes massive upregulation of Salmonella pathogenicity islands (SPIs) and other H-NS-silenced loci. A similar, although not identical, SPI-upregulated profile was observed in a strain with a mutation in the rho gene, Rho K130Q. Surprisingly, Rho mutation Y80C, which affects Rho's primary RNA binding domain, had either no effect or made H-NS-mediated silencing of SPIs even tighter. Thus, while corroborating the notion that bound H-NS can trigger Rho-dependent transcription termination in vivo, these data suggest that H-NS-elicited termination occurs entirely through a NusG-dependent pathway and is less dependent on Rut site binding by Rho. We provide evidence that through Rho recruitment, and possibly through other still unidentified mechanisms, NusG prevents pervasive transcripts from elongating into H-NS-silenced regions. Failure to perform this function causes the feedforward activation of the entire Salmonella virulence program. These findings provide further insight into NusG/Rho contribution in H-NS-mediated gene silencing and underscore the importance of this contribution for the proper functioning of a global regulatory response in growing bacteria. The complete set of transcriptomic data is freely available for viewing through a user-friendly genome browser interface.

RNA remodeling by bacterial global regulator CsrA promotes Rho-dependent transcription termination.

RNA-binding protein CsrA is a key regulator of a variety of cellular processes in bacteria, including carbon and stationary phase metabolism, biofilm formation, quorum sensing, and virulence gene expression in pathogens. CsrA binds to bipartite sequence elements at or near the ribosome loading site in messenger RNA (mRNA), most often inhibiting translation initiation. Here we describe an alternative novel mechanism through which CsrA achieves negative regulation. We show that CsrA binding to the upstream portion of the 5' untranslated region of Escherichia coli pgaA mRNA-encoding a polysaccharide adhesin export protein-unfolds a secondary structure that sequesters an entry site for transcription termination factor Rho, resulting in the premature stop of transcription. These findings establish a new paradigm for bacterial gene regulation in which remodeling of the nascent transcript by a regulatory protein promotes Rho-dependent transcription attenuation.

A role for Rho-dependent polarity in gene regulation by a noncoding small RNA.

Gene regulation by bacterial trans-encoded small RNAs (sRNAs) is generally regarded as a post-transcriptional process bearing exclusively on the translation and/or the stability of target messenger RNA (mRNA). The work presented here revealed the existence of a transcriptional component in the regulation of a bicistronic operon-the chiPQ locus-by the ChiX sRNA in Salmonella. By studying the mechanism by which ChiX, upon pairing near the 5' end of the transcript, represses the distal gene in the operon, we discovered that the action of the sRNA induces Rho-dependent transcription termination within the chiP cistron. Apparently, by inhibiting chiP mRNA translation cotranscriptionally, ChiX uncouples translation from transcription, causing the nascent mRNA to become susceptible to Rho action. A Rho utilization (rut) site was identified in vivo through mutational analysis, and the termination pattern was characterized in vitro with a purified system. Remarkably, Rho activity at this site was found to be completely dependent on the function of the NusG protein both in vivo and in vitro. The recognition that trans-encoded sRNA act cotranscriptionally unveils a hitherto neglected aspect of sRNA function in bacteria.

Mg2+ regulates transcription of mgtA in Salmonella Typhimurium via translation of proline codons during synthesis of the MgtL peptide.

In Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Mg2+ limitation induces transcription of the mgtA Mg2+ transport gene, but the mechanism involved is unclear. The 5' leader of the mgtA mRNA contains a 17-codon, proline-rich ORF, mgtL, whose translation regulates the transcription of mgtA [Park S-Y et al. (2010) Cell 142:737-748]. Rapid translation of mgtL promotes formation of a secondary structure in the mgtA mRNA that permits termination of transcription by the Rho protein upstream of mgtA, whereas slow or incomplete translation of mgtL generates a different structure that blocks termination. We identified the following mutations that conferred high-level transcription of mgtA at high [Mg2+]: (i) a base-pair change that introduced an additional proline codon into mgtL, generating three consecutive proline codons; (ii) lesions in rpmA and rpmE, which encode ribosomal proteins L27 and L31, respectively; (iii) deletion of efp, which encodes elongation factor EF-P that assists the translation of proline codons; and (iv) a heat-sensitive mutation in trmD, whose product catalyzes the m1G37 methylation of tRNAPro Furthermore, substitution of three of the four proline codons in mgtL rendered mgtA uninducible. We hypothesize that the proline codons present an impediment to the translation of mgtL, which can be alleviated by high [Mg2+] exerted on component(s) of the translation machinery, such as EF-P, TrmD, or a ribosomal factor. Inadequate [Mg2+] precludes this alleviation, making mgtL translation inefficient and thereby permitting mgtA transcription. These findings are a significant step toward defining the target of Mg2+ in the regulation of mgtA transcription.

Expression of IroN, the salmochelin siderophore receptor, requires mRNA activation by RyhB small RNA homologues.

The iroN gene of Salmonella enterica and uropathogenic Escherichia coli encodes the outer membrane receptor of Fe(3+) -bound salmochelin, a siderophore tailored to evade capture by the host's immune system. The iroN gene is under negative control of the Fur repressor and transcribed under iron limiting conditions. We show here that transcriptional de-repression is not sufficient to allow iroN expression, as this also requires activation by either of two partially homologous small RNAs (sRNAs), RyhB1 and RyhB2. The two sRNAs target the same sequence segment approximately in the middle of the 94-nucleotide 5' untranslated region (UTR) of iroN mRNA. Several lines of evidence suggest that base pair interaction stimulates iroN mRNA translation. Activation does not result from the disruption of a secondary structure masking the ribosome binding site; rather it involves sequences at the 5' end of iroN 5' UTR. In vitro 'toeprint' assays revealed that this upstream site binds the 30S ribosomal subunit provided that RyhB1 is paired with the mRNA. Altogether, our data suggest that RyhB1, and to lesser extent RyhB2, activate iroN mRNA translation by promoting entry of the ribosome at an upstream 'standby' site. These findings add yet an additional nuance to the polychromatic landscape of sRNA-mediated regulation.

Translation enhancing ACA motifs and their silencing by a bacterial small regulatory RNA.

GcvB is an archetypal multi-target small RNA regulator of genes involved in amino acid uptake or metabolism in enteric bacteria. Included in the GcvB regulon is the yifK locus, encoding a conserved putative amino acid transporter. GcvB inhibits yifK mRNA translation by pairing with a sequence immediately upstream from the Shine-Dalgarno motif. Surprisingly, we found that some target sequence mutations that disrupt pairing, and thus were expected to relieve repression, actually lower yifK expression and cause it not to respond to GcvB variants carrying the corresponding compensatory changes. Work prompted by these observations revealed that the GcvB target sequence in yifK mRNA includes elements that stimulate translation initiation. Replacing each base of an ACA trinucleotide near the center of the target sequence, by any other base, caused yifK expression to decrease. Effects were additive, with some triple replacements causing up to a 90% reduction. The enhancer activity did not require the ACA motif to be strictly positioned relative to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence, nor did it depend on a particular spacing between the latter and the initiating AUG. The dppA mRNA, another GcvB target, contains four ACA motifs at the target site. Quite strikingly, replacement of all four ACAs by random trinucleotide sequences yielded variants showing over 100-fold reduction in expression, virtually inactivating the gene. Altogether, these data identify the ACA motif as a translation-enhancing module and show that GcvB's ability to antagonize the enhancer function in target mRNAs is quintessential to the regulatory effectiveness of this sRNA.

Caught at its own game: regulatory small RNA inactivated by an inducible transcript mimicking its target.

A relevant, yet little recognized feature of antisense regulation is the possibility of switching roles between regulatory and regulated RNAs. Here we show that induction of a Salmonella gene relies on the conversion of a small RNA from effector to regulatory target. The chiP gene (formerly ybfM), identified and characterized in the present study, encodes a conserved enterobacterial chitoporin required for uptake of chitin-derived oligosaccharides. In the absence of inducer, chiP is kept silent by the action of a constitutively made small RNA, ChiX (formerly SroB, RybC), which pairs with a sequence at the 5' end of chiP mRNA. Silencing is relieved in the presence of chitooligosaccharides due to the accumulation of an RNA that pairs with ChiX and promotes its degradation. Anti-ChiX RNA originates from an intercistronic region of the chb operon, which comprises genes for chitooligosaccharide metabolism and whose transcription is activated in the presence of these sugars. We present evidence suggesting that the chb RNA destabilizes ChiX sRNA by invading the stem of its transcription terminator hairpin. Overall, our findings blur the distinction between effector and target in sRNA regulation, raising the possibility that some of the currently defined targets could actually be inhibitors of sRNA function.

Temperate phages promote colicin-dependent fitness of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.

Bacteria employ bacteriocins for interference competition in microbial ecosystems. Colicin Ib (ColIb), a pore-forming bacteriocin, confers a significant fitness benefit to Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Tm) in competition against commensal Escherichia coli in the gut. ColIb is released from S. Tm into the environment, where it kills susceptible competitors. However, colicin-specific release proteins, as they are known for other colicins, have not been identified in case of ColIb. Thus, its release mechanism has remained unclear. In the current study, we have established a new link between ColIb release and lysis activity of temperate, lambdoid phages. By the use of phage-cured S. Tm mutant strains, we show that the presence of temperate phages and their lysis genes is necessary and sufficient for release of active ColIb into the culture supernatant. Furthermore, phage-mediated lysis significantly enhanced S. Tm fitness in competition against a ColIb-susceptible competitor. Finally, transduction with the lambdoid phage 933W rescued the defect of E. coli strain MG1655 with respect to ColIb release. In conclusion, ColIb is released from bacteria in the course of phage lysis. Our data reveal a new mechanism for colicin release and point out a novel function of temperate phages in enhancing colicin-dependent bacterial fitness.

Interplay of transcriptional and small RNA-dependent control mechanisms regulates chitosugar uptake in Escherichia coli and Salmonella.

Escherichia coli and Salmonella can use chitin-derived oligosaccharides as carbon and nitrogen sources. Chitosugars traverse the outer membrane through a dedicated chitoporin, ChiP, and are transported across the cytoplasmic membrane by the chitobiose transporter (ChbBCA). Previous work revealed that synthesis of the chitoporin, ChiP, requires transcription of the chbBCARFG operon. A sequence from the chbBC portion of the transcript was shown to act as a decoy target for a regulatory small RNA, ChiX, that normally blocks chiP expression. ChiX is destabilized and degraded upon pairing with chbBC RNA. Here, we show that the chiP gene, like the chbBCARFG operon, is also downregulated at the transcriptional level by the NagC repressor. NagC repression is critical in maintaining chiP mRNA levels low enough, relative to ChiX, to allow full silencing by this sRNA. We also show that pairing of ChiX to chbBC RNA downregulates chbC under uninduced conditions, that is, when ChiX is in excess to the decoy sequence. Hence, under these conditions, chbBC RNA is not just a decoy, but a true target of ChiX regulation. Altogether these findings underscore the importance of stoichiometry in dictating the strength of the sRNA response and in differentiating the regulator from the regulatory target.

Bacteriophage crosstalk: coordination of prophage induction by trans-acting antirepressors.

Many species of bacteria harbor multiple prophages in their genomes. Prophages often carry genes that confer a selective advantage to the bacterium, typically during host colonization. Prophages can convert to infectious viruses through a process known as induction, which is relevant to the spread of bacterial virulence genes. The paradigm of prophage induction, as set by the phage Lambda model, sees the process initiated by the RecA-stimulated self-proteolysis of the phage repressor. Here we show that a large family of lambdoid prophages found in Salmonella genomes employs an alternative induction strategy. The repressors of these phages are not cleaved upon induction; rather, they are inactivated by the binding of small antirepressor proteins. Formation of the complex causes the repressor to dissociate from DNA. The antirepressor genes lie outside the immunity region and are under direct control of the LexA repressor, thus plugging prophage induction directly into the SOS response. GfoA and GfhA, the antirepressors of Salmonella prophages Gifsy-1 and Gifsy-3, each target both of these phages' repressors, GfoR and GfhR, even though the latter proteins recognize different operator sites and the two phages are heteroimmune. In contrast, the Gifsy-2 phage repressor, GtgR, is insensitive to GfoA and GfhA, but is inactivated by an antirepressor from the unrelated Fels-1 prophage (FsoA). This response is all the more surprising as FsoA is under the control of the Fels-1 repressor, not LexA, and plays no apparent role in Fels-1 induction, which occurs via a Lambda CI-like repressor cleavage mechanism. The ability of antirepressors to recognize non-cognate repressors allows coordination of induction of multiple prophages in polylysogenic strains. Identification of non-cleavable gfoR/gtgR homologues in a large variety of bacterial genomes (including most Escherichia coli genomes in the DNA database) suggests that antirepression-mediated induction is far more common than previously recognized.

Transcription-driven DNA supercoiling counteracts H-NS-mediated gene silencing in bacterial chromatin.

In all living cells, genomic DNA is compacted through interactions with dedicated proteins and/or the formation of plectonemic coils. In bacteria, DNA compaction is achieved dynamically, coordinated with dense and constantly changing transcriptional activity. H-NS, a major bacterial nucleoid structuring protein, is of special interest due to its interplay with RNA polymerase. H-NS:DNA nucleoprotein filaments inhibit transcription initiation by RNA polymerase. However, the discovery that genes silenced by H-NS can be activated by transcription originating from neighboring regions has suggested that elongating RNA polymerases can disassemble H-NS:DNA filaments. In this study, we present evidence that transcription-induced counter-silencing does not require transcription to reach the silenced gene; rather, it exerts its effect at a distance. Counter-silencing is suppressed by introducing a DNA gyrase binding site within the intervening segment, suggesting that the long-range effect results from transcription-driven positive DNA supercoils diffusing toward the silenced gene. We propose a model wherein H-NS:DNA complexes form in vivo on negatively supercoiled DNA, with H-NS bridging the two arms of the plectoneme. Rotational diffusion of positive supercoils generated by neighboring transcription will cause the H-NS-bound negatively-supercoiled plectoneme to "unroll" disrupting the H-NS bridges and releasing H-NS.

Dynamics of macrophage polarization support Salmonella persistence in a whole living organism.

Numerous intracellular bacterial pathogens interfere with macrophage function, including macrophage polarization, to establish a niche and persist. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics of macrophage polarization during infection within host remain to be investigated. Here, we implement a model of persistent Salmonella Typhimurium infection in zebrafish, which allows visualization of polarized macrophages and bacteria in real time at high resolution. While macrophages polarize toward M1-like phenotype to control early infection, during later stages, Salmonella persists inside non-inflammatory clustered macrophages. Transcriptomic profiling of macrophages showed a highly dynamic signature during infection characterized by a switch from pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory/pro-regenerative status and revealed a shift in adhesion program. In agreement with this specific adhesion signature, macrophage trajectory tracking identifies motionless macrophages as a permissive niche for persistent Salmonella. Our results demonstrate that zebrafish model provides a unique platform to explore, in a whole organism, the versatile nature of macrophage functional programs during bacterial acute and persistent infections.

Scarless DNA Recombineering.

The method described here allows editing of the bacterial genome without leaving any secondary changes (scars) behind. This method uses a tripartite selectable and counterselectable cassette comprising an antibiotic-resistance gene (cat or kan) and the tetR repressor gene linked to a Ptet promoter-ccdB toxin gene fusion. In the absence of induction, the tetR gene product represses the Ptet promoter, preventing ccdB expression. The cassette is first inserted at the target site by selecting for chloramphenicol or kanamycin resistance. It is subsequently replaced by the sequence of interest by selecting for growth in the presence of anhydrotetracycline (AHTc), which inactivates the TetR repressor thereby causing CcdB-induced lethality. Unlike other CcdB-based counterselection schemes, which require specifically designed λ-Red delivery plasmids, the system described here uses the popular plasmid pKD46 as the source of λ-Red functions. This protocol allows a wide variety of modifications, including the intragenic insertion of fluorescent or epitope tags, gene replacements, deletions, and single base-pair substitutions, to be made. In addition, the procedure can be used to place the inducible Ptet promoter at a chosen position in the bacterial chromosome.

Recombineering 101: Making an in-Frame Deletion Mutant.

DNA recombineering uses phage λ Red recombination functions to promote integration of DNA fragments generated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) into the bacterial chromosome. The PCR primers are designed to have the last 18-22 nt anneal on either side of the donor DNA and to carry 40- to 50-nt 5' extensions homologous to the sequences flanking the chosen insertion site. The simplest application of the method results in knockout mutants of nonessential genes. Deletions can be constructed by replacing a portion or the entirety of a target gene with an antibiotic-resistance cassette. In some commonly used template plasmids, the antibiotic-resistance gene can be coamplified with a pair of flanking FRT (Flp recombinase recognition target) sites that, following insertion of the fragment into the chromosome, allow excision of the antibiotic-resistance cassette via the activity of the site-specific Flp recombinase. The excision step leaves behind a "scar" sequence comprising an FRT site and flanking primer annealing sequences. Removal of the cassette minimizes undesired perturbations on the expression of neighboring genes. Even so, polarity effects can result from the occurrence of stop codons within, or downstream of, the scar sequence. These problems can be avoided by the appropriate choice of the template and by designing primers so that the reading frame of the target gene is maintained past the deletion end point. This protocol is optimized for use with Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli.

DNA Recombineering Applications.

The ability to manipulate the bacterial genome is an obligatory premise for the study of gene function and regulation in bacterial cells. The λ red recombineering technique allows modification of chromosomal sequences with base-pair precision without the need of intermediate molecular cloning steps. Initially conceived to construct insertion mutants, the technique lends itself to a wide variety of applications including the creation of point mutants, seamless deletions, reporter, and epitope tag fusions and chromosomal rearrangements. Here, we introduce some of the most common implementations of the method.

Converting an FRT-Tagged Gene into a Fluorescent Protein Gene Fusion by Flp-Mediated Site-Specific Recombination.

This protocol uses conditional plasmids carrying the open reading frame (orf) of either superfolder green fluorescent protein (sfGFP) or monomeric Cherry (mCherry) fused to a flippase (Flp) recognition target (FRT) site. In cells expressing the Flp enzyme, site-specific recombination between the plasmid-borne FRT and an FRT "scar" in a target gene in the bacterial chromosome results in chromosomal integration of the plasmid with the concomitant in-frame fusion of the target gene to the fluorescent protein orf. This event can be positively selected using an antibiotic-resistance marker (kan or cat) present on the plasmid. This method is slightly more laborious than generating the fusion directly by recombineering and has the limitation that the selectable marker is no longer removable. However, it has the advantage that it can be more readily integrated in mutational studies, allowing conversion of in-frame deletions resulting from Flp-mediated excision of a drug-resistance cassette (e.g., all those of the "Keio collection") into fluorescent protein fusions. Furthermore, in studies that require that the amino-terminal moiety of the hybrid protein keeps its biological activity, presence of the FRT "linker" sequence at the fusion junction makes it less likely for the fluorescent domain to sterically interfere with the folding of the amino-terminal domain.

Construction of Single-Copy Fluorescent Protein Fusions by One-Step Recombineering.

We describe a simple recombineering-based procedure for generating single-copy gene fusions to superfolder GFP (sfGFP) and monomeric Cherry (mCherry). The open reading frame (orf) for either protein is inserted at the targeted chromosomal location by λ Red recombination using an adjacent drug-resistance cassette (kan or cat) for selection. The drug-resistance gene is flanked by flippase (Flp) recognition target (FRT) sites in direct orientation, which allows removal of the cassette by Flp-mediated site-specific recombination once the construct is obtained, if desired. The method is specifically designed for the construction of translational fusions producing hybrid proteins with a fluorescent carboxyl-terminal domain. The fluorescent protein-encoding sequence can be placed at any codon position of the target gene's mRNA where the fusion produces a reliable reporter for gene expression. Internal and carboxyl-terminal fusions to sfGFP are suitable for studying protein localization in bacterial subcellular compartments.