JB
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Akerley, B J
Right arrow Articles by Miller, J F
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Akerley, B J
Right arrow Articles by Miller, J F
J Bacteriol. 1993 June; 175(11): 3468-3479

research-article

Flagellin gene transcription in Bordetella bronchiseptica is regulated by the BvgAS virulence control system.

B J Akerley and J F Miller

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles 90024.

ABSTRACT

The products of the bvgAS locus activate expression of a majority of the known Bordetella virulence factors but also exert negative control over a class of genes called vrg genes (bvg-repressed genes). BvgAS negatively controls the production of flagella and the phenotype of motility in Bordetella bronchiseptica. In this study flaA, the flagellin gene, was cloned and characterized to facilitate studies of this negative control pathway. An internal flaA probe detected hybridizing sequences on genomic Southern blots of Bordetella pertussis, Bordetella parapertussis, and Bordetella avium, although B. pertussis and B. parapertussis are nonmotile. FlaA is similar to the FliC flagellins of Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli, and flaA complemented an E. coli flagellin mutant. Insertional inactivation of the chromosomal flaA locus eliminated motility, which was restored by complementation with the wild-type locus. Analysis of flaA mRNA production by Northern (RNA) blotting and primer extension indicated that negative regulation by BvgAS occurs at the level of transcription. The transcriptional start site of flaA mapped near a consensus site for the alternative sigma factor, sigma F, encoded by fliA in E. coli and S. typhimurium. Consistent with a role for a fliA analog in B. bronchiseptica, transcriptional activation of a flaA-lacZ fusion in E. coli required fliA and a flaA-linked locus designated frl.frl also efficiently complemented mutations in the flagellar master regulatory locus, flhDC, of E. coli. Our analysis of the motility phenotype of B. bronchiseptica suggests that the Bordetella virulence control system mediates transcriptional control of flaA through a regulatory hierarchy that includes the frl locus and an alternative sigma factor.

J Bacteriol. 1993 June; 175(11): 3468-3479




This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. Infect. Immun. Eukaryot. Cell
Mol. Cell. Biol. J. Virol. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 1993 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.