Open AccessArticle
The FilZ Protein Contains a Single PilZ Domain and Facilitates the Swarming Motility of Pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913
by
Qi Sheng, Ang Liu, Peiling Yang, Zhuowei Chen, Peng Wang, Haining Sun, Chunyang Li, Andrew McMinn, Yin Chen, Yuzhong Zhang, Hainan Su, Xiulan Chen and Yuqiang Zhang
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2087
Abstract
Swarming regulation is complicated in flagellated bacteria, especially those possessing dual flagellar systems. It remains unclear whether and how the movement of the constitutive polar flagellum is regulated during swarming motility of these bacteria. Here, we report the downregulation of polar flagellar motility
[...] Read more.
Swarming regulation is complicated in flagellated bacteria, especially those possessing dual flagellar systems. It remains unclear whether and how the movement of the constitutive polar flagellum is regulated during swarming motility of these bacteria. Here, we report the downregulation of polar flagellar motility by the c-di-GMP effector FilZ in the marine sedimentary bacterium
Pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913. Strain SM9913 possesses two flagellar systems, and
filZ is located in the lateral flagellar gene cluster. The function of FilZ is negatively controlled by intracellular c-di-GMP. Swarming in strain SM9913 consists of three periods. Deletion and overexpression of
filZ revealed that, during the period when strain SM9913 expands quickly, FilZ facilitates swarming. In vitro pull-down and bacterial two-hybrid assays suggested that, in the absence of c-di-GMP, FilZ interacts with the CheW homolog A2230, which may be involved in the chemotactic signal transduction pathway to the polar flagellar motor protein FliM
p, to interfere with polar flagellar motility. When bound to c-di-GMP, FilZ loses its ability to interact with A2230. Bioinformatic investigation indicated that
filZ-like genes are present in many bacteria with dual flagellar systems. Our findings demonstrate a novel mode of regulation of bacterial swarming motility.
Full article
►▼
Show Figures
