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The two-component signal transduction system YvcPQ regulates the bacterial resistance to bacitracin in Bacillus thuringiensis

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Abstract

YvcPQ is one of the two-component signal transduction systems that respond to specific stimuli and enable cells to adjust multiple cellular functions. It consists of a histidine kinase YvcQ and a response regulator YvcP. In this study, through searching the consensus sequence recognized by YvcP, we found four YvcP-binding motifs in the promoter regions of genes yvcR (BMB171_C4100), BMB171_C4385, kapD (BMB171_C4525) and BMB171_C4835 in Bacillus thuringiensis BMB171 which is a representative of Bacillus cereus group, and confirmed that these genes are regulated by YvcP. We compared the sequence of yvcPQ and its downstream genes in genus Bacillus, and found two different kinds of yvc locus, one was the yvcPQ-RS in B. subtilis species and the other was the yvcPQ-R-S1S2 in B. cereus group. Furthermore, we found that YvcP activates the transcription of yvcS1S2 (downstream of yvcR) to promote bacterial resistance to bacitracin and deletion of either yvcPQ operon or yvcS1S2 operon renders the bacterial cells more sensitive to bacitracin. This study enriched our understanding of both the YvcPQ’s function and the mechanism of bacterial resistance to bacitracin.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 31270105), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant 2662015PY175) and the National High-tech R&D Program of China (863 Program, Grant 2011AA10A205).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Shumeng Zhang, Xinfeng Li, Xun Wang, Zhou Li & Jin He

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  1. Shumeng Zhang
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  2. Xinfeng Li
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  3. Xun Wang
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  4. Zhou Li
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  5. Jin He
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Correspondence to Jin He.

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Communicated by Pierre Béguin.

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Zhang, S., Li, X., Wang, X. et al. The two-component signal transduction system YvcPQ regulates the bacterial resistance to bacitracin in Bacillus thuringiensis . Arch Microbiol 198, 773–784 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-016-1239-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-016-1239-z

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